spacetoday.net: Shuttle docks with ISS

Posted: Fri, Oct 26, 2007, 12:51 AM ET (0451 GMT)
STS-120: docking with ISS (NASA)

The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station on Thursday morning, marking the beginning of an ambitious assembly mission at the station. Discovery docked with the station's Destiny module at 8:40 am EDT (1240 GMT), and hatches separating the two spacecraft opened about two hours later. Later in the day Discovery astronaut Dan Tani officially became a member of the ISS crew when he installed his seat liner in the Soyuz docked to the station; he replaced Clay Anderson, who will return to Earth on the shuttle. Shuttle managers also informed the STS-120 crew that additional detailed inspections of the shuttle's exterior will likely not be required, because the images collected to date showed no evidence of damage to the shuttle's tiles and panels. The next major event of the mission will be an EVA on Friday, where Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock will help install the Harmony module on the station.