The space shuttle Atlantis linked up with the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday for its final rendezvous. NASA said Atlantis and its crew of six astronauts successfully docked with the orbiting space lab at 10:28 am (1428 GMT) about 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the South Pacific.
After an hour to check the soundness of the seal, the shuttle and station crews were to open the hatches and hold a traditional welcome ceremony before beginning preparations for the first of three planned spacewalks.
The mission is the 32nd and final scheduled voyage for Atlantis, which first launched in 1985 and has logged some 115 million miles (185 million kilometers) over a career spanning a quarter of a century.
After this mission, only two more shuttle launches remain - one in September for Discovery and the final blast off for Endeavour in November - before the curtain falls on this era of human spaceflight.
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