home in time for docking

Caught the approach and soft dock of the shuttle to station. As Discovery readied for the back-flip, shadows from the solar arrays fell over the fuselage.



And then the snout, as the west coast of South America slid past.



After the RPM, the shuttle sped up to position itself for approach. Coasting around behind the JAXA external experiments rack.



Docked! Look at that. The Dextre robot, Canadarm2, JAXA lab, JAXA H-II (gold), and the NASA space truck. Canadian, Japanese, and American partners all together.



Gear not shown: Russian Soyuz and Progress craft and European ATV.