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Space shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station yesterday, delivering its newest inhabitant a German astronaut who will return the orbiting complex's crew to three people for the first time in three years.

 

The shuttle's jets cut off and space station latches automatically hooked onto the shuttle as they traveled at 28,200 kilometers per hour, about 350 kilometers above the Earth.

 

Once the hatch was opened, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter planned to move his seat liner to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the space laboratory, marking his transfer to the space station's crew.

 

An hour before the docking, Discovery commander Steve Lindsey manually steered the shuttle's nose up and slowly flipped the spacecraft over so the space station's crew could photograph its belly for any signs of damage. It was only the second time a space shuttle has performed the unusual maneuver before docking with the station.

 

The space station's two residents, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams, an American, planned to transmit the digital images back to Houston, where mission managers and engineers would study them. An inspection on Wednesday by Discovery's crew using cameras attached to a 15-meter boom revealed no major damage from the launch.

 

"Great to see you out the window," Williams radioed to Discovery after the shuttle fired maneuvering jets and made its final approach to the space station several kilometers away.

 

Lindsey responded: "Good to see you, Jeff. We're proceeding along normally. You guys look great."

 

The pitch maneuver was performed for the first time during Discovery's flight last year, the only other shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

 

Wednesday's inspection by the astronauts uncovered a thermal tile filler poking about a half-inch out of the belly of Discovery. Deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said better data should be available later Thursday but for now, engineers do not believe the dangling fabric will pose a danger for re-entry or require repairs. Last summer two similar strips had to be removed in orbit.

 

Reiter, who has a son named Daniel, will spend six months living on the space station.

 

The crew's size had been reduced to two in the years after the Columbia accident when NASA's shuttle fleet was grounded; Russian vehicles were not large enough to keep the space station supplied for more than two people.

 

(China Daily July 7, 2006)