A view down the length of the space station's Russian Zarya module as photographed by the last space shuttle crew in October. 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. Endeavour's crew also will deliver Christmas presents and personal gifts to Shepherd's crew from family members back on Earth.
National flags representing all the international partners run along the bottom.
Once flight day nine is over, the crew will go to bed and get ready for the undocking. 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. 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. Normally when you do a fly around, you always point the top of the orbiter at whatever you're flying around.