The shuttle Atlantis docked at the orbiting International Space Station for one last hitch-up Sunday, on its final space voyage before the entire 30-year US shuttle program shuts down for good.
The shuttle docked at 11:07 am (1507 GMT), just over an hour after the spacecraft performed its habitual slow backflip so that the ISS crew could take pictures of its heat shield before clasping onto the lab, NASA said.
"Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time," said ISS flight engineer Ron Garan, after the linkup took place 240 miles (386 kilometers) high just over New Zealand.
"It's great to be here station, see you shortly," said Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson.
Hatches are to be opened between the two spacecraft at 1:19 pm (1719 GMT), according to the NASA plan. Atlantis began its 12-day journey on Friday with a picture-perfect lift-off from Kennedy Space Center that was watched locally by hundreds of thousands of tourists, and marked the last-ever blastoff of the three decade long program.
The flight marks the end of an era for NASA, leaving Americans with no actively operating government-run human spaceflight program and no method for sending astronauts to space until private industry comes up with a new capsule, likely by 2015 at the earliest.
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