STS-129 Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver Sped Up

Nov 18, 2009
When Atlantis is about 600 feet from the station, Hobaugh will maneuver Atlantis through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station Flight Engineers and photographers Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott. The photos will be transmitted to Mission Control for evaluation by imagery experts and mission managers to determine whether the heat shield sustained any damaged during launch.