NASA reported another successful docking with the International Space Station, on the fourth space shuttle mission of the year. Endeavour launched on Friday, November 14, at 7:55 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and arrived at the International Space Station 2 days later. The 15-day mission is of extreme importance for NASA, as it carries the necessary equipment to expand ISS’s capacity from a three-bedroom one bed-room residence to a five-bedroom two-bath residence for six astronauts.

Endeavour arrived at the ISS with a payload of equipment and supplies, as well as a new flight engineer, Sandra Magnus, who will replace flight engineer Greg Chamitoff. According to NASA, Magnus is now Expedition 18 Flight Engineer, while Chamitoff is an STS-126 mission specialist. Chamitoff is scheduled to return to Earth within two weeks.

Mission specialists Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Stephen Bowen will begin their first spacewalk on Tuesday, when they will replace a depleted oxygen tank and a device used to help coolant flow along the truss, the backbone of the station. Furthermore, they will remove the old units, as well as the covers from the front of the Japanese Kibo module to prepare for the installation of the module’s exposed facility during the STS-127 mission scheduled to take place next year.

In addition to that, the mission specialists will also inspect, clean and lubricate the SARJ race ring, as well as replace 11 of its trundle bearings (the first of which was replaced in June, during STS-124). The astronauts will continue the SARJ lubrication process for the remainder of the spacewalks.

Other members of the mission, pilot Eric Boe, mission specialist Donald Pettit and flight engineer Sandra Magnus, will unpack the new crew quarters and prepare the ISS for the transition from a three-person crew to a six-person crew.

As lead shuttle flight director Mike Sarafin pointed out in a statement last week, competing the process and establishing a six-person crew on the International Space Station’s 10th anniversary is a tremendous international effort and the best way to celebrate it.

NASA believes expanding the number of astronauts on the International Space Station is an important step toward using the station to its full capacity, as well as making it less dependent on the space shuttle. The new regenerative environmental control and life support system will give the station the ability to recycle urine and the condensation that the crew breathes into the air into pure water that can be used for drinking or to cool the station’s systems.

Endeavour is scheduled to return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, November 29, at 2 p.m. EST, marking the completion of its 22nd mission, the 27th flight to the ISS and the 124th flight in shuttle program’s history.