Belly up to the Space Station (sped-up version)

Watch the shuttle perform a back flip in space as it approaches the International Space Station. At about 600 feet below the station, the shuttle flips bass ackwards, exposing its underside to the station.

As the shuttle bellies up to the station, the station crew has about 9 minutes to snap up as many photos as it can. The digital snapshots are downlinked to Earth to check for chips and dings on the surface of the tiles, which act as the vehicle's heat shield.

Tiles range in thickness from a quarter-inch to four-and-a-half inches thick. The space shuttle leading edges and the nose cone are made of reinforced carbon-carbon material capable of withstanding temperatures up to 3,600 degrees, now that's a hottie!

The Shuttle Atlantis, which launched June 8, 2007 and flipped upside down before docking to the station June 10, has 24,000 thermal protection tiles.

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• atlantis
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• nasa
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