<p>The midnight rendezvous occurred as the two spacecraft sailed over the Atlantic, just west of Portugal. It took longer than normal to lock the shuttle and station together because of the relative motion between the two. The space station’s five residents filled the time, before their guests came aboard, by trying out camera angles and interviewing one another.<br /><br />“What are you expecting from the shuttle?” Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi asked Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. “My cucumbers,” Suraev replied, getting a big laugh.<br />The two crew members shook hands and embraced when the hatches finally opened, greeting each other with “good to see you” and “how goes it” while floating inside the space station.<br /><br />Space station commander Jeffrey Williams said he was happy to see his friends — “really happy because we haven’t seen many people other than the crew members for a long time.”<br /><br />The shuttle’s six astronauts were impressed with what they saw.<br />“We couldn’t believe how spectacular and shiny the space station was,” said Endeavour’s commander, George Zamka.<br /><br />Back at Mission Control, Nasa said standard checks hadn’t revealed any launch damage so far. All the pictures and information collected during the first two days of the flight indicate Endeavour suffered no serious damage during Monday’s liftoff. But the analysis is continuing, and a few hundred photos taken from the space station during Endeavour’s final approach will yield additional data, said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.<br /><br />Endeavour’s crew will spend more than a week at the space station, installing the compartments and helping with space station maintenance.<br /></p>
<p>The midnight rendezvous occurred as the two spacecraft sailed over the Atlantic, just west of Portugal. It took longer than normal to lock the shuttle and station together because of the relative motion between the two. The space station’s five residents filled the time, before their guests came aboard, by trying out camera angles and interviewing one another.<br /><br />“What are you expecting from the shuttle?” Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi asked Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. “My cucumbers,” Suraev replied, getting a big laugh.<br />The two crew members shook hands and embraced when the hatches finally opened, greeting each other with “good to see you” and “how goes it” while floating inside the space station.<br /><br />Space station commander Jeffrey Williams said he was happy to see his friends — “really happy because we haven’t seen many people other than the crew members for a long time.”<br /><br />The shuttle’s six astronauts were impressed with what they saw.<br />“We couldn’t believe how spectacular and shiny the space station was,” said Endeavour’s commander, George Zamka.<br /><br />Back at Mission Control, Nasa said standard checks hadn’t revealed any launch damage so far. All the pictures and information collected during the first two days of the flight indicate Endeavour suffered no serious damage during Monday’s liftoff. But the analysis is continuing, and a few hundred photos taken from the space station during Endeavour’s final approach will yield additional data, said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.<br /><br />Endeavour’s crew will spend more than a week at the space station, installing the compartments and helping with space station maintenance.<br /></p>