Commander Performs Terminal Initiation Burn

Commander Charles Hobaugh and the crew of Atlantis performed the Terminal Initiation burn at 9:05 a.m. EST, firing the left Orbital Maneuvering System engine for 12 seconds to place the shuttle on the final path for its 11:53 a.m. docking to the International Space Station. When Atlantis is about 600 feet from the station, Hobaugh will maneuver Atlantis through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station Flight Engineers and photographers Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott. The photos will be transmitted to Mission Control for evaluation by imagery experts and mission managers to determine whether the heat shield sustained any damaged during launch. More

(Source: NASA - Nov 18)