DATE=4/10/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SHUTTLE DOCKING (S)

NUMBER=2-288536

BYLINE=DAVID McALARY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: After a two-day orbital chase, the U-S space station Atlantis has docked with the international space station. As David McAlary reports, the shuttle's seven-astronauts will spend a week continuing construction of the outpost.

TEXT: With the help of cameras and distance-measuring laser beams, Atlantis commander Mike Bloomfield carefully guided the shuttle to a target on the station's docking port nearly 400-kilometers above China.

The rendezvous begins a seven-day sojourn at the orbiting research outpost, combining the shuttle's seven astronauts with the station's three U-S and Russian crewmembers.

In the coming week, two alternating pairs of shuttle astronauts will conduct four spacewalks to install the first segment of a long support girder across the station's research laboratory.

The 13-meter-long piece is first of 10 that will be joined to create a 100-meter support for solar power arrays and air conditioning equipment for future labs.

The new segment has a railway flatcar on a track that, when the other segments are added, will carry the station's robot arm to areas it cannot now reach. (SIGNED)

NEB/DEM/RAE