Atlantis docks with space station

New Delhi: NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the International Space Station on Sunday

The Space shuttle will start a week-long stay to deliver electricity-generating solar panels and a new crewmember to the orbital outpost.

Three spacewalks are planned to the install the equipment and perform other tasks that

NASA said may include repair of a heat-protecting thermal blanket on the shuttle's exterior.

The two spacecraft linked up at 3:36 pm EDT (1936 GMT) as they sailed 220 miles over the western Pacific Ocean.

After checking airtight connections between the shuttle and station, 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.

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 during Friday's launch.

So far, the only area that has caught engineers' attention is a small piece of insulating blanket that peeled back near the rear of the shuttle during takeoff and exposed a few inches of the ship's inner layers.

Deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said NASA was deciding whether it warrants repair by a spacewalking astronaut and is already working on ways to do it if necessary. "I'm leaning maybe a little bit toward doing it," he said.

Shannon told reporters at Johnson Space Center in Houston that the gap could expose the skin to extreme heat during re-entry to the earth's atmosphere and cause damage.

But he said the damage would be minor, not something that could cause another shuttle disaster like the destruction of Columbia in 2003.

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 was delayed three months for the repair work.

Rookie astronaut Clayton Anderson was added to Atlantis' crew to replace Williams, who will be ending a six-month stay at the space station.

Williams already has spent more time on space walks than any other woman and 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 (14-metre) long, 35,678-pound (16,183 kg) aluminum structure that will become part of the station's exterior backbone and includes solar panels that will add 14 kilowatts of generating power.

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.

(With agency inputs)