Endeavour Arrives At The International Space Station

The space shuttle Endeavour has docked at the International Space Station, where it will spend the majority of its time while in space.

At approximately 6:14 a.m. EDT, Endeavour's commander Mark Kelly backed the space shuttle into pressurized mating adapter 2 on the International Space Station's Harmony node. An hour later at 7:38 a.m. EDT, hatches between space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station were opened and the crew of the Endeavour had arrived at its home for the next 10 days.

It was there, the crew of the Endeavour met up with Russian Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Russian Flight Engineers Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, and NASA's Cady Coleman and Ron Garan. They will work all together until the 23^rd, when Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli head home. Borisenko will take over as commander of the station while Samokutyaev and Garan stay as well.

After the hatches were open, the spare parts carrier, Express Logistics Carrier 3, was transferred from the shuttle's robotic arm to the station's robotic arm then installed on the port side of the station's truss structure. The items on it are a spare ammonia tank, a high-pressure oxygen tank, two S-band antennas and 10 circuit breakers.

The 16-day mission from Endeavour will the crew deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, and additional spare parts for Dextre to the International Space Station. The mission will include four spacewalks, the first of which is set for Friday.

It is the final mission for the space shuttle, which will be sent to a museum upon its return from space.

Follow Gabriel Perna on Twitter at @GabrielSPerna