After its Monday blast off from the Kennedy Space Center, Space shuttle Atlantis smoothly docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, equipped with 15 tonnes of pumps, gyroscopes, and tanks, along with other and other mechanism which is too huge to be heaved by any other spacecraft.

Marking the 129th shuttle mission, Atlantis, which will remain attached to the space station till next Wednesday, will essentially deliver spare parts required to keep the space station functional after the shuttle is retired next year.

The shuttle's commander, Charles "Scorch" Hobaugh, glided it to a precision docking with the space station, approaching unswervingly from the front side of the 670,000-pound lab complex. The docking system of the shuttle engaged its space station counterpart at 10:51 a. m. CST; and the hatches were opened, after leak checks and other inspection, at around 12:28 p. m.

The six-member crew aboard the Atlantis will undertake three spacewalks with the objective of setting additional communications antennas at the station; installing science experiments; and carrying out some maintenance work at the station's robot arm.

Upon the retirement of the Atlantis and its two sister ships, Discovery and Endeavour, next year, the space station's requirements of food, fuel and supplies will be catered to by Russian, European and Japanese cargo ships. The space station crew will fly on Russian Soyuz capsules; thereby spelling a $50-million-per-seat cost for the US.