Discovery docks with space station
Updated: 2007-10-25 23:59
Inspections like the one Wednesday became standard procedure after a piece of foam broke off Columbia's external fuel tank during liftoff and gashed a wing, allowing hot gases to penetrate the spacecraft during its return to Earth. The shuttle disintegrated, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
About six pieces of foam broke off Discovery's external fuel tank during launch and one or more may have hit the shuttle, but it happened late enough to be of little or no concern. Shannon said nothing appeared to come off the tank's brackets, which were modified after Endeavour's landing.
Later Thursday, astronaut Daniel Tani will ceremoniously change places with Anderson, who has been living on the station since June and will return to Earth aboard Discovery. Tani will remain on board until the next shuttle flight, slated for December.
"I can't wait to settle into my new home," Tani said after being awoken to the song "Dancing in the Moonlight."
The Discovery crew won't have much time to get comfortable with an action-packed schedule that calls for a record-tying five spacewalks.
The astronauts have to install Discovery's primary payload, a pressurized compartment that will be a docking port for European and Japanese laboratories being launched on the next three shuttle flights.
An Italian astronaut making his first spaceflight, Paolo Nespoli, is personally delivering the chamber, named Harmony by schoolchildren who took part in a national competition.
The astronauts also have to move a massive girder and set of solar wings on the station and pull out the solar wings and radiators.
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