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US shuttle Atlantis arrives at space station
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-19 02:58

WASHINGTON: US space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station Wednesday after nearly two days of journey.

Commander Charles Hobaugh steered the shuttle to a docking with the station at 11:51 am EDT (1651 GMT) when the two spacecraft were flying 220 miles above the Earth between Australia and Tasmania, NASA said.

Before the docking, Hobaugh maneuvered Atlantis through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station Flight engineers and photographers Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott. The photos will be transmitted to Mission Control for evaluation by imagery experts and mission managers to determine whether the heat shield sustained any damage during launch.

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The shuttle and station crews will open hatches and hold the traditional welcome ceremony at 1:48 pm EDT (1848 GMT). When hatches open, astronauts Nicole Stott's tenure as a station Expedition 21 flight engineer will come to an end as she joints the Atlantis crew.

Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday. Its 11-day flight will include three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the station's truss, or backbone. The platforms will hold spare parts to sustain station operations after the shuttles' retirement.

Atlantis' STS-129 mission is NASA's fifth and last shuttle mission for 2009. There are just five more shuttle launches scheduled before the planned September 2010 retirement of the space shuttle fleet.