Commander Steve Lindsey and the crew of space shuttle Discovery performed the Terminal Initiation burn at 11:33 a.m. EST, firing the left Orbital Maneuvering System engine for 11 seconds to place the shuttle on the final path for its 2:16 p.m. docking to the International Space Station.
When Discovery is about 600 feet from the station, Lindsey will maneuver the shuttle through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station crew members. Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman will use digital cameras with 800mm and 400mm lenses, respectively, to photograph Discovery’s upper and lower surfaces through windows of the Zvezda service module. The photos will be transmitted to Mission Control in Houston for evaluation by imagery experts and mission managers to determine whether the heat shield sustained any damage during launch.