Shuttle Crew Aboard Space Station

SLN: Up to the Minute, I'm Charles Atkeison. Following today's 5:01 pm ET docking, the crew of Endeavour shook hands with the crew of the international space station tonight, and the start of 10 days of serious work.

Following latching by both crafts docking ports, the hatches were opened at 7:16 pm ET as the station's Expedition 18 crew of Mike Fincke, Yury Lonchakov and Gregory Chamitoff welcomed Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson and his crew of six aboard the orbital outpost in space.

"Welcome Endeavour. You guys look awesome, It was a beautiful approach, beautiful docking, we're really glad you're here," ISS commander Fincke stated on air-to-ground. "We understand that this house is in need of an extreme makeover and that you're the crew to do it. We think we've got everything ready for you. We're really glad to see you. Welcome. Welcome everybody. Welcome to space."

Later, Ferguson replied, "Hey, we figured we'd go for a ten year anniversary party for the space station, so that's what we showed up for..."
Endeavour crew member Sandy Magnus will replace ISS astronaut Chamitoff beginning tonight when she replaces his Soyuz seatliner with hers at about 9:50 pm. Magnus is starting a four month stay aboard the space station.

Also of note: There are no issues regarding loose tiles or damaged thermal blankets across Endeavour, mission management stated tonight.
At a MET+2 days, 10 minutes into the flight of mission STS-126, this is spacelaunchnews.com.