The STS-116 crew of the space shuttle Discovery will begin their challenging work to rewire the International Space Station Dec. 12 after docking with the ISS at about 5:12 p.m. EST Dec. 11. It was Discovery's 7th docking with the ISS since the start of the program.

Mission commander Mark Polansky piloted the docking assisted by copilot Navy Cdr. William Oefelein as the two spacecraft flew at dawn 220 mi. above southeast Asia.

The linkup sets in motion work for a major electrical and cooling reconfiguration of the ISS this week.

The first major job, shortly after docking, however, was the removal of the P5, 4,000-lb. ISS short spacer truss from the payload bay using the shuttle's Canadian built manipulator arm. The shuttle arm was then to hand the truss off to the much larger ISS arm four hours after the docking.

That was in turn to set the stage for the mission's first extravehicular activity (EVA) set to begin at about 3:45 p.m. EST Dec. 12. During this first EVA astronauts Navy Capt. Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang of Sweden (representing the European Space Agency) will assist the use of the station arm to position P5 short spacer at the end of the new port solar array truss added on the last flight. The new spacer truss will enable the attachment of the now top-mounted P6 arrays in 2007.

On Dec.13, the port side of the older top mounted P6 solar arrays are to be retracted. Curbeam and Fuglesang are to then perform their second EVA starting at about 3:15 p.m. EST Dec. 13 to begin the complex electrical rewiring process.

The flight's third EVA to complete the rewiring is to take place Dec. 16 when astronaut Navy Capt. Sunita Williams will join Curbeam for the work. Williams will replace ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter on the ISS.

As Discovery approached the station the pilots paused the orbiter at 600 ft. for a slow 360 deg. backflip to enable detailed photography from the ISS of Discovery's thermal protection tiles on the belly and underside of the wings .

The belly appeared clean without any chips or dings. But the imagery will be studied in detail to make sure.

The inspection a day earlier of Discovery's reinforced carbon carbon wing leading edge and nose cap material by the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) also showed no sign of any external tank foam or ice impact.