At 8:03 p.m. EDT, space shuttle Discovery’s Commander Rick Sturckow began the planned Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, guiding the shuttle through a nine-minute back flip while space station crew members Gennady Padalka and Mike Barratt snap digital pictures with 400- and 800-millimeter lenses. Taken from a distance of about 600 feet, these high-resolution images will be downlinked to Mission Control in Houston, where experts will use them to evaluate the condition of Discovery’s heat shield.
