Uploaded February 2011 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
At 1:15 p.m. EST Saturday, space shuttle Discovery began the nine-minute Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or "backflip." With Commander Steve Lindsey at the helm, Discovery rotated 360 degrees backward to enable space station astronauts to take high resolution pictures of the shuttle's heat shield. Lindsey then flew the shuttle through a quarter circle to a position about 310 feet directly in front of the station, allowing the station to catch up with it for docking at 2:16 p.m.
Source: nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=67132241
At 1:15 p.m. EST Saturday, space shuttle Discovery began the nine-minute Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or "backflip." With Commander Steve Lindsey at the helm, Discovery rotated 360 degrees backward to enable space station astronauts to take high resolution pictures of the shuttle's heat shield. Lindsey then flew the shuttle through a quarter circle to a position about 310 feet directly in front of the station, allowing the station to catch up with it for docking at 2:16 p.m.
Source: nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=67132241
