Pope Benedict blesses space station crews during Vatican call

Pope Benedict XVI address the space station crews today. (Vatican)

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, placed a special call to the crews aboard the earth orbiting International Space Station today, a first in Papal history.

Speaking from the Foconi Room of the Vatican Library in Italy, Pope Benedict began speaking to the combined crew of twelve of the station and the docked shuttle Endeavour at 7:11 a.m. EDT (1111 GMT).

It was the first ever call from the Pope to an orbiting spacecraft in fifty years of space flight.

"Dear astronauts, I'm very happy to have this extraordinary opportunity to converse with you during your mission, and especially grateful to be able to speak to as many of you as both crews are present on the space station at the same time," the Pope began from a prepared letter.

Reading first from a prepared address, his Holiness wished for the speedy recovery of Endeavour's commander Mark Kelly's wife, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and condolences to station astronaut Paolo Nespoli who lost his mother a few weeks ago.

Rep. Giffords was shot in the head in January during an attempt on her life at a Tucson shopping center. She has recovered enough which allowed for her to travel to Florida to attend her husband's shuttle launch last Monday.

The twenty minute conversation was filled with emotion and questions about the earth from space.

Pope Benedict spoke to the crew, "From the space station, you have a very different view of the earth. You fly over different continents and nations several times a day. I think it must be obvious to you how observed to you how we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each one."

His Holiness then addressed Kelly and spoke of his wife, "I know that Mark Kelly's wife was a victim of a serious attack and I hope her health continues to improve. When you're contemplating the Earth from up there, so you ever wonder about the way nations and people live together down here, about how science can contribute to the cause of peace?"

Kelly then addressed the Pope, "Thank you for the kind words, your Holiness, and thank you for mentioning my wife, Gabby," Kelly replied. "It's a very good question. We fly over most of the world and you don't see borders, but at the same time we realize that people fight with each other and there's a lot of violence in this world and it's really an unfortunate thing."

The Pope spoke in Italian to station astronaut Paolo Nespoli who's mother passed away on May 2, "Dear Paolo, I know that a few days ago your mom left you and in a few days you will come back home and you will not find her waiting for you," the pope said in translated remarks. "We're all close to you. Me too, I have prayed for her. How have you been living through this time of pain on the International Space Station? Do you feel isolated and alone? Or do you feel united amongst ourselves in a community that follows you with attention and affection?"

The Italian astronaut then responded with fondness to his Holiness, "Holy father, I felt your prayers and everyone's prayers arriving up here," Nespoli replied. "My colleagues on board the station were very close to me at this important time for me, a very intense moment, as well as my brothers and sisters, my uncles, my aunts, my relatives were close to my mom in her last moments. I'm very grateful for this. I felt very far, but also very close. And the thought of feeling all of you near me at this time has been a great relief."

The Pope concluded with greetings to the International crew, "The astronauts, I thank-you warmly for the wonderful opportunity to meet and chatter with you. You help me and many other people to reflect together on important issues with regards with the future of humanity."

"I wish you the very best for your work and for the success of your current mission and the service of science, International collaboration, attentive progress and for peace in the world. I will continue to follow you in my thoughts and prayers, and being I (offer) you apostolic blessing."

Endeavour docks with the space station one last time

Endeavour nears the space station this morning. (NASA)

Shuttle Endeavour arrived at her port-of-call this morning to begin twelve days filled with spacewalks and the delivery of supplies including a particle physics detector which will study the dark matter in space.

Endeavour's commander Mark Kelly guided the orbiter to her final docking to the International Space Station today at 6:14 a.m. EDT, as the orbital pair flew 220 miles high over the southeastern Pacific Ocean during an orbital sunrise.

A golden bell was rung in the tradition of arriving naval vessels as space station crew member Paolo Nespoli herald, "Endeavour arriving!".

Endeavour slowly closed in to a distance of 600 feet from the orbital outpost at 5:15 a.m. to begin an orbital ballet in space as the two spacecraft flew 240 miles high over southwestern Russia.

A minute later, Endeavour began a 360-degree back flip known as the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, so that the space station's crew members could photograph the underside of the shuttle to survey for any damage caused by Monday's launch.

Using a 800-mm and 400-mm cameras, station astronauts Cady Coleman and Nespoli took several hundred images of the orbiter's belly as the shuttle was held motionless for ten minutes.

As the shuttle neared the complex, ground controllers and Endeavour's Andrew Feustel monitored a special experiment which will yield new data in navigating in orbit called STORRM.

"The goal of STORRM is to validate a new relative navigation sensor based on advanced laser and detector technology that will make docking and undocking to the International Space Station and other spacecraft easier and safer," NASA's Johnson Space Center stated.

Using a sensor and high-def docking camera tied to a laptop computer on the shuttle's flight deck, commander Kelly piloted Endeavour's approach to the space station to test STORRM.

The crew also took dozens of detailed images with the STORRM and later downloaded them to the ground.

Meanwhile on the ground near Houston, Kelly's wife Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, prepared to undergo an operation today to replace a piece of her skull with a plastic implant.

Rep. Giffords traveled with her staff and family to the Kennedy Space Center to watch her husband's launch from the roof of the launch control center.

Following the on time docking, the two crews worked to normalize the air pressure between the three hatches located between station and shuttle.

The hatches were officially opened between shuttle's airlock and the vestibule module on the space station at 7:38 a.m., as the station flew over the southern Pacific Ocean.

The station's Expedition 27 crew's commander Dmitry Kondratyev shook hands and gave a Russian greeting of welcome with arriving shuttle commander Kelly.

Twenty-five minutes after the hatches opened, the shuttle's crew of Kelly, pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Feustel and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency, floated through the hatches and into the station's Harmony module.

"Hey, you guys wore coordinating shirts," Kelly exclaimed to the space station's crew of six as he floated aboard station at 8:11 a.m., followed by his crew.

"Its good to be back, it looks pretty much the same," Kelly added minutes later as the twelve huddled for the first time together.

Feeling rushed by the busy schedule ahead for the day, Kelly stepped up to ask for the traditional safety briefing for his crew by Italian astronaut Nespoli who, with Kondratyev and Coleman, have lived aboard station for the past five months.

Weather moves Endeavour crew inside to discuss mission

Commander Mark Kelly discusses Endeavour's mission. (NASA)

Severe storms hammering the Florida Space Coast this morning moved the traditional media event with the crew of the next space shuttle flight from the launch pad to an indoor auditorium.

As tornado sirens sounded and rain poured down at the Kennedy Space Center, the six member flight crew for Endeavour's April flight took questions from the media during a twenty minute event.

"Thanks for coming out on this beauty Florida morning," Endeavour's commander Mark Kelly began jokingly from the press auditorium at 8:28 a.m. EDT. "It's good to be here... this is the time where our training meets the processing of our vehicle."

Kelly told the media up front how he wanted the questions to be addressed, "I'd like to keep the questions related to the mission," refering to the overwhelming questions asked recently if his wife, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will be on hand for her husband's April 19 launch.

Rep. Giffords was seriously wounded with a single gun shot to the head during a January shooting spree at a Tuscon shopping mall as she met with supporters.

"We are pretty hopeful," Kelly addressed as to Giffords ability to make it from her Houston recovery center to the Kennedy Space Center, but Kelly added that the doctors have not given her a medical approval just yet.

Kelly spoke with excitement of the significance Endeavour's prime payload will have on the science community.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer "will use the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for antimatter, dark matter while performing precision measurements of cosmic rays composition and flux," according to AMS scientists.

The mission's commander said, "Within an hour of Greg (Johnson) and Greg (Chamitoff) attaching AMS to the space station, they will begin receiving data" on the ground.

The AMS is intended to operate through 2020 or longer while scientists from fifty-six institutions in sixteen countries perform their own studies and investigations into the cosmic rays in our galaxy.

Endeavour's all veteran space crew is led by Kelly, includes pilot Johnson, and mission specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.

Endeavour's mission specialist Finke will become the American with the most time in space on day twelve of Endeavour's flight having lived aboard the space station on two separate six month excursion flights.

Finke will head to earth orbit already having spent 365 days, 21 hours and 32 minutes in space. Endeavour is scheduled to land fourteen days after launch, with a possible one day extension to be discussed following Endeavour's docking to the International Space Station.

Endeavour's all veteran space crew is led by Kelly, and includes pilot Johnson, and mission specialists Fincke, Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.

Launch of Endeavour on her twenty-fifth and final space flight is set for April 19 at 7:48:40 p.m.

Astronaut's wife shot, critical in mass shooting today

Giffords and astronaut Mark Kelly in 2006 prior to marriage.

The wife of the commander of April's space shuttle flight, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was shot and critically injured on Saturday during a meeting with supporters outside a grocery store near Tucson, Arizona.

Giffords, who oversees Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, was attending a “Congress on Your Corner” which began at 10 a.m. local time.

She is expected to survive a gunshot wound to the head according to the medical staff treating her and several others wounded.

Giffords met astronaut Mark Kelly in 2003 while in China. The couple were married four years later, her biography states.

According to a family friend, Kelly proposed to Giffords on the campus of his alma mater, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, New York in October 2006.

Moments after the tragedy which left thirteen people injured and six dead including one of her aides, Kelly flew from his home near Houston to Tucson to be with his wife. The couple have no children together.

Dr. Peter Rhee of the the University of Arizona trauma center stated that Rep. Giffords' in critical condition, "The neurosurgeons have finished operating on her and... I'm very optimistic about (her) recovery."

He added that she was "following commands" following the single gun shot to the head. Dr. Rhee could not comment on where she was shot specifically.

NASA administrator Charlie Bolden issued a statement hours after the shooting, "We at NASA are deeply shocked and saddened by the senseless shooting of Representative Giffords and others at Saturday’s public event in Tucson".

"As a long-time supporter of NASA, Representative Giffords not only has made lasting contributions to our country, but is a strong advocate for the nation’s space program and a member of the NASA family," Bolden added. "She also is a personal friend with whom I have had the great honor of working."

Georgia's Rep. Tom Price (R-GA6) of north Atlanta issued a brief statement on Saturday's shooting, "My thoughts and prayers are with Gabrielle Giffords, the Giffords family, and the families of all those affected by this tragedy".

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) who flew on the space shuttle Columbia 25 years ago next week stated today, ""I am deeply saddened to learn of today's events in Tucson. My prayers go out to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and all the victims, as well as to our NASA family, which includes her husband, who is training to be the next commander of the space shuttle mission slated for April, and her brother-in-law, who is currently serving aboard the International Space Station."

President Obama addressed the nation in saying, "I ask all Americans to join me and Michelle in keeping Representative Giffords, the victims of this tragedy, and their families in our prayers".

This journalist enjoyed a few drinks with Kelly and his brother, Scott Kelly -- the current commander of the International Space Station -- a few months ago.

The Kelly brothers are a military pair who are very passionate about aerospace and the space program as a whole, and so is Gabrielle Giffords.