Shuttle crew boards space station for week-long stay

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 10 (Reuters) The US space shuttle Atlantis ended a two-day journey to the International Space Station today, slipping into a berthing port to deliver more solar-powered panels and a new crewmember to the orbital outpost.

Docking was at 0106 hrs (IST) as the two craft sailed 354 km over the western Pacific Ocean.

After checking to make sure connections between the shuttle and station were airtight, the seven Atlantis crew floated through the connecting tunnel and into the welcoming arms of station flight engineer Sunita Williams and her two Russian crewmates.

''Atlantis, arriving,'' Williams sang out as her NASA colleagues scrambled aboard, beginning what is expected to be a week-long joint mission.

Before parking Atlantis, commander Frederick Sturckow slowly back-flipped the shuttle so the space station crew could photograph the ship's belly tiles, a key part of the protective shield needed to safely re-enter the atmosphere. The pictures will help NASA determine if the shuttle sustained any damage from debris impacts during Friday's launch.

So far, the only area that has caught engineers' eyes is a small section of insulation covering the shuttle's left maneuvering rocket pod. Images taken by the Atlantis astronauts showed a four-inch-by-six-inch section of the insulating blanket has detached.

''Although this does not appear to be a big issue, the teams are discussing several options,'' flight controllers wrote in an e-mail message to the crew.

HEAT SHIELD Heat shield inspections dominate the first few days of all shuttle missions since the 2003 Columbia accident. Columbia had wing panel damage from a debris impact during launch and was destroyed 16 days later as it flew through the atmosphere for landing, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

The accident was triggered by a piece of the foam insulation that fell off the external fuel tank and hit Columbia as it climbed into orbit.

NASA redesigned the fuel tanks, bought new inspection tools and put together rudimentary heat shield repair kits. Atlantis' launch, the fifth since the accident, renewed concerns about the tank because it underwent extensive repairs to fix hail damage from a freak February. 26 storm.

Atlantis' flight to the station, originally targeted for mid-March, was delayed three months for the repair work, prompting NASA to swap the U.S. crewmember aboard the space station during the current mission, rather than waiting, as originally planned, for the next flight.

Rookie astronaut Clayton Anderson was added to Atlantis' crew for the ride up to replace Williams, who will be ending a six-month stay in space with her return on the shuttle.

Williams, who already has spent more time on spacewalks than any other woman, also will break Shannon Lucid's 188-day record, set in 1996, for the longest space flight by a woman.

The shuttle is carrying a 45-foot long, 16,183 kg aluminum structure that will become part of the station's exterior backbone and includes solar panels.

Its crew members are scheduled to perform three spacewalks to install the new parts and retract an old solar array.

NASA plans to fly 12 more missions to complete the station. It also wants to make two flights to store spare parts and service the Hubble Space Telescope a final time before its three-shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

REUTERS SRS PM0339