CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The astronauts on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight journey floated out from the International Space Station on Sunday and subsequently closed this hatch powering them, following just one remaining round with comfy chooses along with embraces.
All that will always been has been living space shuttle Endeavour's undocking overdue Sunday night time plus it's two-day trip home.
Shuttle commander Mark Kelly explained your 1 1/2 many days connected with shared airline ticket resolved to go well. He was the last to abandon the room station, ongoing for a few mere seconds with all the a few space section residents.
"We're awaiting getting home," Kelly said, "and we live likely to leave these males into a peace and quiet rather than disturb his or her breathing space station just about any more."
"It appeared to be truly great seeing an individual guys," said place resident Ronald Garan Jr. "We were just within amazement of the finely oiled machine."
The station's skipper, Russian Andrey Borisenko, expected this five shuttle astronauts a "soft landing."
Endeavour could resume Florida from the pre-dawn hours involving Wednesday, to never journey around space again. The shuttle might be retired to somewhat of a art gallery in California subsequent this 16-day mission, its 25th.
On it has the ultimate journey, Endeavour provided a $2 billion cosmic ray detector of which will stay about the space section for the next decade.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer already will be accumulating twenty-five thousand that will 40 thousand cosmic dirt some sort of day time worthy of analysis. It's in search of antimatter as well as darkish matter, along with researchers desire the findings will garage easy on the particular starting point with the universe.
Kelly along with his crew additionally furnished the particular room rail station that has a podium filled with give up parts plus an expansion boom with regard to foreseeable future restore work. The boom, set up Friday within the next spacewalk belonging to the mission, designated this the end in the U.S. portion belonging to the room station.
The astronauts likewise worked on several of the actual significant life-support systems inside, around a great attempt to be able to depart the particular orbiting outpost within the greatest contour for that shuttle-less several years ahead.
Astronauts Mike Fincke along with Gregory Chamitoff whom spent months living about the space place in years past pretended they couldn't want to get away from Sunday morning. They were being dragged in to the shuttle by their crewmates. Garan joined up with in around the joke, waving goodbye while in case they were being venturing out aboard Endeavour because well. He's just a pair of a few months directly into his five-month place stay.
All told, that hatches involving the two spacecraft were being open 11 days.
Only yet another shuttle trip is still pertaining to NASA.
Atlantis could great time off of July 8 using a weight involving area train station resources for you to close up out there that 30-year shuttle program.
Kelly, meanwhile, will now have to be able to visit devoid of regular calls that will his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He made use of the place station's Internet mobile phone and keep informed associated with her condition, along with NASA perhaps fixed a videoconference between your two.
Giffords can be starying rehabilitation inside Houston pertaining to a gunshot injure into the head. She was really wounded Jan. 8 throughout Tucson, Ariz., within a political event. She attended Kelly's start May 16 and, not one but two days to weeks later, underwent head reconstruction.
She is not required to be at Kennedy Space Center regarding Endeavour's homecoming presented the particular inconvenient hour: 2:35 a.m.
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