Washington, May 18 (ANI): NASA'S space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station for the 12th and final time on Wednesday after a two-day orbital chase.
According to mission timeline, the hatches between the Space Shuttle and Space Station will be opened after leak tests at 13:36. ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori and his five crewmates will float in the Space Station at 14:36 on 18 May: There they will be welcomed by Expedition 27 astronauts, including ESA's another Italian astronaut, Paolo Nespoli.
The main payload of the Shuttle is an AMS-02, one of the most exciting scientific instruments ever built - an experiment that could change our understanding of the Universe.
During the 16-day STS-134 mission the astronauts from Endeavour will do four spacewalks and also install spare parts and micrometeoroid shields to the Space Station.
After these works and in total 36 Shuttle visits, the orbital outpost is ready for a multitude of uses, ranging from performing fundamental science experiments to preparing for the exploration of deep space.
After almost six days of combined operations, the six-men-crew of Endeavour and three ISS astronauts - Andrei Borisenko, Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Ron Garan - will say goodbye to Dmitri Kondratyev, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli, who have been aboard the ISS since last December.
The leaving trio will take a Soyuz TMA-20 on Tuesday night, depart from the nadir docking port of the Rassvet docking module at 00:06 CEST on 23 May (22:06 GMT on 22 May).
The landing is supposed to happen about three hours later, at 3:26 CEST (01:26 GMT), to the steppes of Kazakhstan when Sun has just risen over the local horizon. (ANI)
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