Mission

Space shuttle Endeavour docked with ISS （Image credit: NASA）

Today, space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 00:49 p.m. (10:49 p.m. March 12 CDT).

At 01:28 p.m., the hatches between the ISS and the space shuttle were opened and the STS-123 Mission crewmembers floated into the ISS. As soon as astronaut Doi entered the ISS, three members of the ISS crew welcomed him with big smiles; the ISS crew and astronaut Doi greeted each other with warm hugs.

Shortly thereafter, the STS-123 Mission crew and ISS crew started their joint operations. Before the sleep period, they completed all of the tightly scheduled tasks, such as robotic transfer of the spacelab pallet (SLP) and preparation of the mission's first Extravehicular Activity (EVA) etc.

Astronaut Doi's on-orbit activities (FD3)

During the rendezvous/docking operations, astronaut Doi assisted with the docking maneuver; he obtained the data of the distance between the space shuttle and the ISS on the onboard rendezvous software, and passed the data on to the shuttle's pilot. Astronaut Doi is the first Japanese astronaut who performed this task.

While the spacelab pallet (SLP) was lifted from the shuttle's cargo bay and attached on the mobile base system (MBS) by SSRMS, astronaut Doi manipulated the shuttle's robotic arm (SRMS) and took a video of the robotic transfer operation with the TV camera mounted on the SRMS for assisting the station's robotic operator.

Along with the other STS-123 Mission crewmembers, astronaut Doi went to sleep at 09:28 p.m.

Tomorrow (FD4), the STS-123 Mission crewmembers are scheduled to wake up at 5:28 a.m. Astronaut Doi will manipulate SRMS to install Kibo's Experiment Logistics Module-Pressurized Section (ELM-PS) on Harmony (Node 2).

For further information, please refer to the NASA STS-123 Mission Status Report

*All times are Japan Standard Time (JST)