Atlantis docks with space station

Space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station for a weeklong stay and the astronauts quickly unloaded a huge platform full of spare parts needed to keep the outpost running for another decade.

The platform - 16 feet by 14 feet - contained pumps, storage tanks and other equipment weighing hundreds of pounds each.

Robot arms did the heavy lifting, just hours after the two craft came together 220 miles above the Pacific, between Australia and Tasmania.

Astronaut Nicole Stott, a space station resident for the past two and a half months, was thrilled to see her ride home. She spotted Atlantis from three miles out.

Just before docking, Mr Hobaugh guided Atlantis through a pirouette for the space station cameras, for a final check to make sure there's no damage to the thermal tiles on its belly.

Experts will continue to analyse the data, as well as the approximately 300 digital photos that were taken yesterday.

The only shuttle problem of note - more a nuisance than anything - involved the laptops. The astronauts had to contend with a poky connection rather than the usual DSL-type high speed, which slowed the transmission of pictures, charts and e-mails between Atlantis and Mission Control. Critical operations were not affected, said flight director Mike Sarafin.

Atlantis will remain at the orbiting outpost until the day before Thanksgiving, enough time for the two crews - 12 astronauts total - to unload nearly 15 tons of spare parts. Half of that gear was moved from the shuttle to the station shortly after the docking.

Ms Stott, the only woman, greeted Mr Hobaugh with a kiss on the cheek once the hatches swung open. She promptly became a member of the shuttle crew. The space station staff fell to five.

Besides pumps and tanks, Atlantis is dropping off hefty gyroscopes, battery chargers and extra snares for the robot arm, as well as some small, fragile science experiments. Perhaps the most delicate are four butterfly larvae, a student experiment. The plan is for the larvae to develop into Painted Lady butterflies over the next week or two and return on the next shuttle flight in February.