The space shuttle Atlantishas successfully docked at the International Space Station on a mission to deliver a giant, six-tonne airlock, NASA officials announced.
Atlantiscommander Steven Lindsey flawlessly docked the space shuttle at 3.08 a.m. while the ISS orbited some 384 kilometers (240 miles) above the earth, said Mr Pete Bethki, a spokesman at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas.
"Everything is going very, very smooth,'' Bethki said.
Atlantisblasted off early Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 11-day mission.
The five astronauts were preparing to open the hatch that links their spacecraft to the ISS, which has been home to three astronauts - Russian commander Yury Usachev and Americans James Voss and Susan Helms - since March.
The Atlantiscrew is to install the giant airlock, which will become the door to the ever-growing space station, allowing the station's resident astronauts to perform space walks without having to wait for a visit from a shuttle.
Two Atlantisastronauts are scheduled to take three space walks totaling 18 hours to install the airlock.
The $164 million aluminum airlock known as "Quest'' is an essential component of the station, permitting astronauts wearing either Russian- or US-made spacesuits to travel safely into space.
The current ISS crew is scheduled to be relieved by another three-person crew in early August.
With the addition of the airlock, the station will become a 424 cubic-meter (15,000 cubic-foot) space, the size of a four-room apartment - ample room for the three resident astronauts.
The piece-by-piece construction of the space station, involving 16 countries is due to be completed by 2006.
AFP