The crew of space shuttle Discovery awoke at 6:53 a.m. EST to the song “Woody’s Roundup” written by Randy Newman and performed by Riders in the Sky, played for Alvin Drew.
Today is docking day in space. The terminal initiation burn at 11:33 a.m. will put the shuttle on the final course to link up with the International Space Station at 2:16 p.m.
Commander Steve Lindsey and pilot Eric Boe will fly Discovery on its approach for docking to the station. After a series of jet firings to fine-tune the shuttle’s path to the complex, Discovery will arrive at a point about 600 feet directly below the station about an hour before docking. At that time, Lindsey 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, Lindsey will fly Discovery in front of the station before slowly docking. About two hours later, at 4:18 p.m., hatches will be opened between the two spacecraft and a combined crew of 12 will begin their work.