STS-130 - Day 3

Day 3 of STS-130 began with the wake-up call. Today's wake-up was "Katmandu" by Bob Segar, played for the mission's commander, George Zamka. Today was the day that the shuttle arrives at the ISS. You see, after a shuttle is launched, it spends the next two days playing a game of catch-up until it manages to arrive at the station.
Over a good portion of the day, the shuttle closed in on the station slowly. As it made its final approach, the shuttle performed a 360 degree flip, in order for the station crew to do an extra inspection of the heat shield for damage. Once that is finished, the shuttle continues its way to docking with the station slow as it goes.
The docking took place at 2:06 am EST 215 miles above the western coast (as if there's a eastern coast) of Portugal. Around that time, the station and shuttle passed into an orbital sunrise (there's one every 90 minutes or so). The motion seemed to welcome Node 3 and the cupola to the station.
The hatches between the two craft were opened at 2:16 am EST and the five-member crew of ISS Expedition 22 met the six-member crew of STS-130 in a traditional welcoming ceremony, led by current ISS commander Jeff Williams. Following a safety briefing from the station crew, the shuttle crew began transfering supplies and such to the orbiting lab.
Among the items transferred were replacement parts for the station's water recycling system (and it does what you think it does). Spacewalkers Nick Patrick and Bob Behnken also moved their suits into the station's Quest airlock to ready them for their upcoming spacewalks. The crew also had the OBSS handed off to the station for the duration of docking.
After all that activity, the shuttle crew went to bed at 8:14 am EST this morning and are scheduled to receive their next wake-up call at 4:14 pm EST. This concludes our look into flight day 3. The next couple of days promise to be very busy ones. Until the next posting, see ya later!