A view down the length of the space station's Russian Zarya module as photographed by the last space shuttle crew in October. Photo: NASA

Until the final spacewalk is complete, hatches between the station and Endeavour will remain closed. That's because the station's air pressure is maintained at 14.7 psi while the shuttle's was lowered to 10.2 psi earlier in the flight to help Tanner and Noriega adjust to the even lower five psi pressure inside their spacesuits.

After the third spacewalk is complete, the shuttle's internal pressure will be boosted back up to 14.7 psi. The final hatch leading from the shuttle into the Unity module will be opened later and the two crews will finally be able to shake hands and enjoy a face-to-face chat.

But it will be a relatively brief visit: Just long enough to transfer supplies and equipment from the shuttle to the station and to a make wiring reconfiguration inside Unity that will permit P6 power to be delivered to any point in the outpost.

Endeavour's crew also will deliver Christmas presents and personal gifts to Shepherd's crew from family members back on Earth.

The official portrait of Expedition One: Commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd (center) is flanked by Soyuz Commander Yuri P. Gidzenko (right) and Flight Engineer Sergei K. Krikalev (left). National flags representing all the international partners run along the bottom. Photo: NASA

"Right now, the joint ingress is slated to be one day and should wrap up with a final handshake and goodbyes at the end of flight day nine," Reeves said. "Once flight day nine is over, the crew will go to bed and get ready for the undocking."

The shuttle is scheduled to undock from the space station around 1:48 p.m. on Dec. 9. With Bloomfield at the controls, Endeavour will drop straight away from the station along the plus R-bar to a point about 450 feet below.

Bloomfield then will initiate a tail-first fly around to a point just above the negative V-bar above and behind the station. He will adjust the orbiter's pitch slightly to aim a wide-format IMAX camera at the station with the Earth in the background.

NASA animation shows Endeavour undocking the international space station with newly-installed solar arrays operating. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

"The goal of the fly around is to take a picture of the international space station as it breaks free from the edge of the Earth from the camera point of view," he said. "Normally when you do a fly around, you always point the top of the orbiter at whatever you're flying around.

"But on our flight, the IMAX camera is not pointed out the top of the shuttle, it's pointed at an angle out the back of the shuttle," Bloomfield said. "I need to have the shuttle at a specific angle so the IMAX camera is looking at the international space station and then behind the international space station is the edge of the Earth."

If all goes well, Endeavour will land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 5:57 p.m. on Dec. 11.

"We were young men in our 30s and 40s when we got assigned to this flight. And now we're not," Noriega joked before launch. "But the opportunity to work on this flight has just been incredible."

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