News
February 10, 2010. S.P.Korolev RSC Energia - MCC-M,
Korolev, Moscow region
US Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour, after two days in free flight, docked at 08:06 Moscow Time with the International Space Station (ISS). The Orbiter docked with the Harmony module via the pressurized mating adapter PMA-2, mounted onto which, just as onto the Orbiter itself, is an Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APDS), developed and made by RSC Energia.
In the course of the Orbiter rendezvous, fly-around and docking with ISS, the Orbiter performed a 360 degrees pitch maneuver and was photographed and filmed from on-board the Space Station in order to check the integrity of the heat-shield and the Orbiter structure as a whole.
Mission Control Centers in Houston (MCC-H) and in Korolev (MCC-M) cooperated in real-time monitoring and controlling the operation of the on-board systems of the Space Station US and Russian segments during rendezvous and docking, including the operation of APDS.
For information:
- The mission designation is STS-130 under the Space Shuttle program and 20A under the ISS program. The main objective of the mission is to deliver and install on the ISS US segment the habitation module Tranquility and the observatory module Cupola. To carry out the space station assembly and maintenance work, the astronauts will have to perform three spacewalks.
- The Orbiter crew: commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, mission specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken.
- Endeavor undocking from ISS is scheduled for February 18, and landing for February 20 of this year.
- Altogether, it only remains for NASA to carry out four missions under the Space Shuttle program, after which, according to a Russia-US agreement, Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA will be used to deliver US astronauts to ISS.
- Video materials about the Orbiter docking with ISS are posted on the web site of TV channel Vesti at http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=258929.
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