Endeavour shuttle heads back to earth
Source: Agencies |
May 30, 2011, Monday
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THE astronauts on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight floated out of the International Space Station yesterday and then closed the hatch behind them, after one final round of warm wishes and embraces.
All that remained was space shuttle Endeavour's undocking late yesterday and a two-day trip home.
Shuttle commander Mark Kelly said the one-and-a-half weeks of joint flight went well. He was the last to leave the space station, lingering for a few seconds with the three space station residents.
"We're looking forward to getting home," Kelly said, "and we're going to leave these guys to some peace and quiet and not disturb their space station any more."
"It was really great seeing you guys," said station resident Ronald Garan Jr. "We were just in awe of your finely oiled machine."
The station's skipper, Russian Andrey Borisenko, wished the six shuttle astronauts a "soft landing." Endeavour will return to Florida in the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, never to fly in space again.
The shuttle will be retired to a museum in California following the 16-day mission, its 25th.
On its final journey, Endeavour delivered a US$2 billion cosmic ray detector that will remain on the space station for the next decade.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer already is collecting 25 million to 40 million cosmic particles a day worthy of analysis. It's searching for antimatter and dark matter, and scientists hope the findings will shed light on the origin of the universe.
Kelly and his crew also provided the space station with a platform full of spare parts and an extension boom for future repair work. The boom, installed on Friday marked the completion of the US portion of the space station.
All that remained was space shuttle Endeavour's undocking late yesterday and a two-day trip home.
Shuttle commander Mark Kelly said the one-and-a-half weeks of joint flight went well. He was the last to leave the space station, lingering for a few seconds with the three space station residents.
"We're looking forward to getting home," Kelly said, "and we're going to leave these guys to some peace and quiet and not disturb their space station any more."
"It was really great seeing you guys," said station resident Ronald Garan Jr. "We were just in awe of your finely oiled machine."
The station's skipper, Russian Andrey Borisenko, wished the six shuttle astronauts a "soft landing." Endeavour will return to Florida in the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, never to fly in space again.
The shuttle will be retired to a museum in California following the 16-day mission, its 25th.
On its final journey, Endeavour delivered a US$2 billion cosmic ray detector that will remain on the space station for the next decade.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer already is collecting 25 million to 40 million cosmic particles a day worthy of analysis. It's searching for antimatter and dark matter, and scientists hope the findings will shed light on the origin of the universe.
Kelly and his crew also provided the space station with a platform full of spare parts and an extension boom for future repair work. The boom, installed on Friday marked the completion of the US portion of the space station.
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