Endeavour Performs Terminal Initiation Burn

Commander George Zamka and the crew of Endeavour performed the Terminal Initiation burn at 9:28 p.m. EST, firing the left Orbital Maneuvering System engine for nine seconds to place the shuttle on the final path for its 12:06 a.m. docking to the International Space Station. When Endeavour is about 600 feet from the station, Zamka will maneuver Endeavour through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station crew members Jeff Williams and Oleg Kotov, who will use digital cameras with 800mm and 400mm lenses, respectively, to photograph Endeavour’s upper and bottom surfaces through windows of the Zvezda service module. The photos will be transmitted to Mission Control for evaluation by imagery experts and mission managers to determine whether the heat shield sustained any damaged during launch.