The crew of space shuttle Endeavour awoke at 5:14 p.m. EST to the song “Katmandu” by Bob Seger, played for shuttle Commander George Zamka.
Today is docking day in space, as shuttle Endeavour closes the gap to the International Space Station and links up at about 12:06 a.m. Endeavour will be flown by Zamka and Pilot Terry Virts on its approach for docking to the station. After a series of jet firings to fine-tune Endeavour’s path to the complex, the shuttle will arrive at a point about 600 feet directly below the station about an hour before docking. At that time, Zamka will execute the rendezvous pitch maneuver, a one-degree-per-second rotational “backflip” to enable station crew members to snap hundreds of detailed photos of the shuttle’s heat shield and other areas of potential interest – another data point for imagery analysts to pore over in determining the health of the shuttle’s thermal protection system.
Once the rotation is completed, Zamka will fly Endeavour in front of the station before slowly closing in for a linkup to the forward docking port on the Harmony module. Less than two hours later, hatches will be opened between the two spacecraft and a combined crew of 11 will begin eight days of work.