Visitors arrive at space station

The crews of Atlantis and the International Space Station greeted each other with hugs and handshakes Sunday after the space shuttle arrived at the orbiting outpost.

But amid the smiles and salutations, NASA engineers in Houston started evaluating whether a peeled-back thermal blanket on the shuttle should be fixed by astronauts.

A decision is likely to be made in the next day or two, and if the answer is to fix it, another decision will be made on whether it would be done during one of three scheduled spacewalks or during an extra, unplanned one.

Astronauts Jim Reilly and John “Danny” Olivas are to make the mission’s first spacewalk today to help attach a new 35,000-pound segment to the space station.

Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow eased the shuttle into the space station’s docking port, and it locked into place at 12:36 p.m. PDT about 210 miles above southeastern Australia.

Hatches between the two spacecraft opened about 1 1/2 hours later when leak checks were completed.

“Atlantis arriving,” U.S. space station resident Sunita Williams said after the traditional ringing of a bell.

Then Atlantis’ astronauts floated into the space station’s Destiny laboratory and hugged each of the station’s residents.

After exchanging greetings and receiving a safety briefing, both crews resumed working.

Shuttle astronaut Clayton Anderson is replacing Williams, who has been in space for more than six months.

After the hatches were opened, Williams and Anderson traded seat-liners on the Russian emergency vehicle attached to the station. The seat-liner exchange marked the official replacement of Williams by Anderson as a space station resident.

The shuttle astronauts’ wake-up song Sunday, “Riding the Sky,” written by two Johnson Space Center employees, was dedicated to Anderson in honor of his move to the space station.