After a two-day chase through space, the shuttle Discovery has docked with the International Space Station.
Discovery is scheduled to be linked up to the $100 billion space outpost for eight days.
During the shuttle's stay, its crew will deliver more than 2,272kg of equipment and supplies and drop off German astronaut Thomas Reiter for a six-month period.
Before docking, Commander Steve Lindsey slowly flipped the shuttle so space station crewmembers Jeff Williams and Pavel Vinogradov could photograph heat-resistant tiles on Discovery's belly that protect it during the scorching return to Earth.
The photos are part of the ongoing inspection process that began at Discovery's launch on Tuesday from Florida and has turned up no significant damage to the spacecraft.
NASA officials hope the clean bill of health given so far indicates they have solved the problem of falling foam from shuttle fuel tanks that caused the Columbia disaster in 2003 and appeared again in the first post-Columbia shuttle flight last summer.
A few pieces of foam, which insulate the tanks from ice formation, shook loose from the fuel tank as Discovery ascended toward space on Tuesday, but they were small in comparison to the 756-gram chunk that broke a hole in Columbia's wing heat shield.
