The crew of Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station, wrapping up the last visit by a US shuttle to the orbiting outpost and setting its sights on an emotional homecoming.
With a spectacular orbital sunrise illuminating a vessel in the sunset of its career, Atlantis manoeuvered away from the ISS about 350 kilometres above the Pacific Ocean.
“Thanks so much for hosting us. It’s a great station, and it’s been an absolute pleasure,” Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson said of his crew’s eight-day stay at the ISS, closing the book on the storied relationship between the two iconic spacecraft. “We’ll miss you guys. Godspeed,” space station flight engineer Ronald Garan called out as Atlantis floated away.
As the age of the shuttle – which has carried US astronauts into space longer than any other vessel – drew to a close after 37 dramatic rendezvous with the ISS, their crews on Monday exchanged embraces and kisses before shutting the hatches separating them for a final time.
Astronauts placed an American flag that flew on the first shuttle mission in 1981 on the passageway separating the shuttle and the space station, to symbolize the end of one era of US spaceflight and the dawn of a new one.
“When this flag returns again someday to earth by astronauts that came up on an American spacecraft, its journey will not end there,” said Commander Ferguson. “Its journey will continue, it will leave low-earth orbit once again, perhaps to a lunar destination – perhaps to Mars.” Atlantis blasted off July 8 with a four-member crew, lugging the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module and several tons of supplies to the ISS to help sustain the outpost for a year.
The shuttle is scheduled for a pre-dawn touch-down today at 9.56 GMT at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre.
Emotions ran high during the undocking and its aftermath, with Atlantis accomplishing one final task after another, including a flyby of the ISS to document seldom-seen outer parts of the station, as it prepared for re-entry in two days’ time.
Nasa flight director Dan Tani praised the work of “the magnificent machines that delivered, assembled and staffed our world-class laboratory in space”.
The warm words gave way to a focus on getting the shuttle crew home safely. By 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday, Atlantis had completed one last inspection of its protective heat shield, using the robotic arm to scan and photograph the wings’ leading edges, the nose cone and the shuttle’s underbelly.
With the conclusion of America’s vaunted shuttle program, the world’s astronauts will rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for rides to the ISS until a new US space craft – a commercial launcher and capsule built by a private corporation in partnership with Nasa – is ready to fly sometime after 2015.