Atlantis, ISS crews greet each other

HOUSTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station crews greeted each other Wednesday during a traditional welcoming ceremony.

The shuttle docked with the space station at 11:51 a.m. EST and, after lengthy leak and procedural checks, the hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 1:28 p.m. EST.

NASA said the hatch opening ceremony also marked the end of astronaut Nicole Stott's 87-day tenure as an Expedition 21 flight engineer. As the hatch to the space station opened she automatically became a member of the STS-129 crew and will return to Earth aboard Atlantis.

That will make STS-129 the final space shuttle crew rotation flight to or from the space station, the space agency said. In the future, ISS crew rotations will be handled by Soyuz spacecraft under Russian command.

Also on Thursday's schedule was the transfer of Express Logistics Carrier 1. It was to be moved from Atlantis' payload bay by the shuttle's robotic arm and handed to the space station's robotic arm.

NASA said the day's activities would end with astronauts Robert Satcher and Mike Foreman "camping out" in the ISS Quest Airlock to prepare for their Thursday spacewalk.

With only five missions left before the end of the shuttle program, Atlantis is delivering more than 20,000 pounds worth of spare equipment too large to fit aboard any other existing spacecraft.