**The crew of space shuttle Endeavour has begun preparing to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).**Before docking, scheduled for 1755 GMT, the shuttle will perform a backflip, allowing the ISS team to photograph and inspect Endeavour’s heat shield.
When the two crews join together, there will be a record 13 astronauts on the orbiting outpost.
During their 11-day visit, the shuttle team will finish work on a Japanese research laboratory called Kibo.
Endeavour was finally launched successfully from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on Wednesday after five failed attempts.
The previous efforts to begin the 16-day mission were hampered by bad weather and fuel leaks.
The seven-strong crew on Thursday, their first full day in space, carried out a routine five-hour inspection of the craft’s thermal protection system using the shuttle’s robotic arm.
Mission experts back on Earth examined the data and gave the shuttle an initial all clear.
Officials for the US space agency said they were not overly concerned about some debris that was seen hitting the shuttle during launch.
“It didn’t hurt us apparently on this flight because because it came off so late,” shuttle manager John Shannon is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
A status report issued by Nasa on Thursday said: “The early review indicates only a few minor dings in some [thermal protection] tiles… due to some unexpected losses of small foam pieces from the external tank.”
Shortly before the shuttle docks with the space station, the orbiter will perform a nine-minute backflip, known as a “Rendezvous Pitch Manoeuvre”, allowing the ISS crew to take up to 300 photographs of the shuttle’s thermal protection system.
These images will be examined by engineers back at mission control to ensure there is no damage that could jeopardise the shuttle’s re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere.
Once the backflip is completed, Commander Mark Polansky will gently guide Endeavour towards the ISS.
Although the shuttle will move towards the space station at about 3cm per second during the docking procedure, both spacecraft will be travelling at 28,160km/h (17,500mph), 350km (220 miles) above the Earth.
Finishing touches
During the mission, five spacewalks - each expected to last 6.5 hours - are scheduled to be completed.
The first, scheduled for Saturday, will add a platform to the Japanese laboratory complex, Kibo, which can be used for experiments that require materials to be exposed to the harsh environment of space.
The crew will also install new batteries to one of the solar arrays, which provide power to the space station, and perform other maintenance tasks.
In addition, Endeavour will deliver a new long-stay US crew member, Tim Kopra, to the ISS and bring back Japan’s Koichi Wakata, who has lived aboard the platform for more than three months.
The $100bn space station, now about the size of a four-bedroom house, has been under construction for more than a decade.
This is the 127th space shuttle flight, the 29th to the station, the 23rd for Endeavour and the third in 2009.
Seven further flights to the platform remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.