Image: Endeavour's rendezvous pitch maneuver
At 5:15 a.m. EDT today, Endeavour began the nine-minute Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or 'backflip,' on its last visit to the Inernational Space Station.
With Commander Mark Kelly at the controls, Endeavour rotated 360 degrees backward to enable space station astronauts Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman to take high resolution pictures of the shuttle’s heat shield.
Kelly then flew the shuttle through a quarter circle to a position about 400 feet directly in front of the station. Docking occurred about an hour later at 6:14 a.m.
Provided by JPL/NASA
Citation:
Image: Endeavour's rendezvous pitch maneuver (2011, May 19)
retrieved 19 April 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2011-05-image-endeavour-rendezvous-pitch-maneuver.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
