Shuttle Endeavour undocks from space station
The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the
International Space Station Friday, leaving behind a new habitation module and
observation deck that virtually complete the U.S. segment of the lab complex
after more than 11 years of construction.
With pilot Terry Virts at the controls, Endeavour
pulled directly away from the station's forward docking port at 7:54 p.m. EST
after nine days of joint activity.
"Zambo, it's been good having you, sorry to see
you guys leave," station flight engineer Timothy Creamer radioed to
shuttle commander George Zamka. "We'll watch and wave."
"T.J. from Endeavour, thanks very much for the
great hospitality," Zamka replied. "We're sorry to go. Hope you get
to enjoy Tranquility and the new view."
Station commander Jeffrey Williams, following naval
tradition, formally announced the separation, saying "United States space
shuttle Endeavour, departing," before ringing the ship's bell in the
forward Harmony module.
At a distance of about 400 feet directly in front of
the station, Virts initiated a 360-degree photo-documentation fly-around,
looping up above the complex, directly behind, and then below before firing a
rocket to leave the area for good.
"You guys are looking absolutely marvelous down
there against the backdrop of the ocean and the clouds," Williams called.
"Terry, it looks like you're doing some smooth flying."
"Terry is making this an absolute pleasure trip
around the International Space Station," Zamka said. "You guys look
great as well. We had you back-lit tremendously by the
Zamka, Virts, Kathryn Hire, flight engineer Stephen
Robinson, and spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick plan to spend
the rest of their "day" packing and inspecting the shuttle's
reinforced carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the
most extreme heating during re-entry.
Using a laser scanner and camera on the end of a 50-foot
extension to the shuttle's robot arm, the astronauts planned to look for signs
of any micrometeoroid impact damage that might have occurred since an identical
inspection the day after launch.
"After undocking we have to perform another
inspection like the one we did on flight day two, this time to check for damage
that might have happened on orbit," Patrick said in a NASA interview.
"And then we'll spend an entire day turning our orbiter back into a winged
vehicle that can re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
"So we'll get out all our suits and hang them up,
ready to go the next morning for entry," he said. "We will set up all
the seats and the communications lines and the oxygen lines and so on and we'll
start putting away everything we've used during the mission."
Source: cnet.com