Today astronauts aboard the Endeavour are preparing to dock with the International Space Station. Comprehensive inspections have been done on the shuttle’s heat shields due to potential damage from the craft’s moon-lit launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

The crew, numbering seven, also checked out the possibility of a small portion of insulating blanket being torn away from the upper-left side of the Endeavour immediately after the Friday liftoff.

The close-up images taken with the robotic shuttle arm and boom extension equipped with cameras and laser sensors revealed no immediate apparent damage.

"There's no apparent damage there in the imagery that we gathered," said Mike Sarafin, the mission's lead flight director. "Our analysts are off assessing it."

Astronauts aren’t worried however, saying that even if the suspected 12 to 18 inches long, 4 inches wide and less than an inch thick insulation is damaged, there’s little motive for that to constitute a serious problem.

The spot in question is near one of the servo engines used by the shuttle to adjust course on orbit, and is not subjected to the 3,000 degree heat that the bottom side of the shuttle – near the thrusters – faces.

"This is not an area that is of great concern to us," said LeRoy Cain, a senior shuttle program manager.

No other debris-related incidents following the launch were confirmed, in spite of two initially reported to the crew by mission controllers.

Eric Boe, Shane Kimbrough and Don Pettit, the three Endeavour crew members scanned the shuttle’s reinforced carbon-carbon wing edges and nose cap. Ever since the loss of the Columbia, this has become standard operating procedure for Space Shuttle flights.

Heat shielding tiles from the belly of the Endeavour will be photographed from the ISS today when Ferguson, who is the mission commander, will perform an orbital back flip 600 feet beneath the station. It may take a few days for all the pictures are analyzed and the final go-ahead is given for the Endeavour to land on Nov. 29. Otherwise further analysis will be conducted.

Another technical flaw was reported, albeit minor. An antenna problem could affect the way the shuttle approaches the station’s docking ring just after 5 p.m.

Once the shuttle docks with the ISS, the former’s crew will be greeted by the latter’s three residents. On behalf of America, there are astronauts Mike Fincke and Greg Chamitoff. Representing Russia is cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov. Sandra Magnus will relieve Chamitoff aboard the station, and he’ll be using the Endeavour to hitch a ride home after spending six months in space.

If all goes well, Monday will begin the Endeavour’s mission proper: transferring a cargo module and 15,000 pounds of gear to the station, not the least of which is a refrigerator. Others include new bunk stations, a toilet and a water recycling system. All these will allow the station to double its crew capacity next year, and yield a higher research output.

The mission is also about four spacewalks meant to repair a damaged joint to the mechanism that rotates solar panels on the station’s starboard side in order to catch the sun perpendicularly.

So far so good, as it seems everything is going according to plan. Godspeed.