With commander Chris Ferguson at the controls, Endeavour docked with the space station's Harmony Node at 5:01 p.m. EST. The station and shuttle crews were to open the hatches between their vehicles and greet each other about two hours later.

Before hooking up with the space station, Ferguson put Endeavour through its rendezvous pitch maneuver, or backflip, so the station astronauts could photograph the shuttle's thermal protection system. The pictures will be sent to Earth for more analysis to make sure the heat shield wasn't damaged during take-off.

Astronaut Sandra Magnus, who arrived aboard Endeavour, will take over as flight engineer from astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who will return to Earth.

The space agency's ground crew piped in the Rolling Stones rocker "Start Me Up" to get the seven-member crew up and on deck for its first full day in space following Saturday's lift-off from Cape Canaveral.

The crew's first order of business Saturday was an inspection of the Endeavour's fuselage for any damage that occurred during the launch. CNN said a camera on the shuttle's robotic arm spotted a loose piece of the protective ther mal blanket, but program managers did not consider it to be a significant problem. >>>> 

India plants flag on moon

Chandrayaan-1 launched and landed its lunar probe Friday admitting India to the select group of countries that have put their hardware on the moon.

G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, announced that the Moon Impact Probe landed near the moon's south pole 25 minutes after detaching from the Chandrayaan orbiter, The Hindu reported. The probe has Indian flags painted on both sides.

"Just as we had promised, we have given India the moon," Nair said.

The landing was timed for the Indian Children's Day.

The probe is equipped with a radar altimeter, video imaging and a mass spectrometer and is designed to send back data on the lunar surface and to demonstrate soft landing techniques. Chandrayaan remains in a low orbit around the moon to map its surface and gather additional data.

Nair predicted that India could launch a manned mission to the moon within seven years. >>>> 

NASA provides live space talk 24/7

The U.S. space agency says it now provides access to conversations between International Space Station astronauts and controllers on Earth 24 hours a day.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the live space talk is available daily under the NASA TV tab at www.nasa.gov.

"The streaming audio of space-to-ground communications includes NASA commentary during specific station mission events and regularly scheduled space station commentary on NASA Television Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. EDT," officials said.

NASA previously provided such space-to-ground communication with commentary during space shuttle missions. >>>>