Shuttle Endeavour docks at International Space Station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- The space shuttle and space station hooked up Friday after a round-the-world chase, making for the biggest crowd ever gathered together in orbit — 13 Earthlings.

Endeavour docked at the International Space Station as the two craft soared 220 miles above the Australian coast.

Once the hatches popped open, the seven shuttle astronauts floated into the space station, one by one, and embraced their six station colleagues. It was a bit of a mob scene, a floating jumble of dark shirts, beige pants and shorts and white socks.

"Welcome," said the station's skipper, Russian Gennady Padalka, positioned at the entrance.

"Thirteen is a pretty big number, but it's going to be an outstanding visit for us," said shuttle commander Mark Polansky. "We are just thrilled to be here."

Besides being the biggest space gathering ever, it was the most diverse: seven Americans, two Russians, two Canadians, one Japanese and one Belgian. Twelve men, one woman. Four medical doctors. And engineers and pilots galore.

The station doubled in size, people-wise, at the end of May, and this was the first shuttle visit since then. Although 13 people have been in orbit before, they were scattered in separate spacecraft. The old under-the-same-roof crowd record was 10.

Their first team effort comes Saturday, when two of the astronauts venture out on the first of five planned spacewalks to help hook up a porch for Japan's space station lab. The porch will be used to hold outdoor experiments.

Endeavour's astronauts had barely settled in when Mission Control informed them that a piece of space junk was threatening to come too close and they would have to dodge it. Later in the evening, the shuttle thrusters were fired, pushing the entire complex into a slightly higher orbit.

Earlier Friday, as it was closing in for the linkup, Endeavour performed a backflip from 600 feet out so the station crew could photograph its entire surface and uncover any severe launch damage. Endeavour's fuel tank lost more foam insulation than usual during Wednesday's launch, and some of the smaller pieces struck the shuttle, leaving a series of minor dings.