At 2:48 a.m. EDT, space shuttle Discovery began an eight minute Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, a slow backflip that permits International Space Station crew members Oleg Kotov and T.J. Creamer to snap high resolution photographs of the shuttle heat shield. The digital pictures will be transmitted to Mission Control for review by imagery experts and managers to help validate the integrity of Discovery’s thermal protection system. With Commander Alan Poindexter at the helm, Discovery will dock to the space station at 3:44:50 a.m.