Space shuttle to start construction work

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Endeavour pulled up to the International Space Station and docked Wednesday, kicking off almost two weeks of demanding construction work.

Before the late-night linkup, Endeavour’s commander, Dominic Gorie, guided the shuttle through a 360-degree back flip to allow for full photographic surveillance.

It’s one of the many safety-related procedures put in place following the Columbia tragedy in 2003.

The space station crew used cameras with high-powered zoom lenses to photograph Endeavour from nose to tail, especially all the thermal tiles on its belly. The pictures – as many as 300 – will be scrutinized by engineers on the ground to see whether the shuttle suffered any damage during Tuesday’s launch.

Something, maybe a bird, may have struck Endeavour’s nose nine or 10 seconds after liftoff. The launch images are inconclusive so far. NASA expects that images collected during the astronauts’ laser inspection of the nose and wings will reveal any damage, if it’s there.

LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team, said the launch video suggests to some that Endeavour’s nose took a hit. Still photos, on the other hand, show no impact.

“It’s too early to speculate,” Cain said late Wednesday afternoon. “The team has got a lot of work to do on that as well as other debris items.”

Besides seven astronauts, one of them Japanese, Endeavour holds the first piece of Japan’s new space station lab, Kibo, which is Japanese for “hope.” The storage compartment will be attached to the orbiting complex on Friday; it’s a temporary location until the lab arrives in May.

Endeavour also is delivering a two-armed Canadian robot, named Dextre, that will be assembled during the first three spacewalks of the mission, as well as a new space station resident, Garrett Reisman. In all, five spacewalks are planned.