The crews of Endeavour and the International Space Station joined together today after hatches between the spacecraft swung open a little more than two hours after the shuttle docked at the outpost.
The docking was pulled off despite the loss of a key guidance sensor. Mission commander George Zamka instead had to rely on crewmates wielding handheld lasers and out-the-window visual cue to bring the 100-ton spaceship to a safe mooring at the outpost as both flew 220 miles above the planet.
At the station, a crew of five greeted the shuttle astronauts: NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and T.J. Creamer, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, Russian cosmonauts Max Suraev and Oleg Kotov.
By Todd Halvorson, FLORIDA TODAY
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