The crew of the Atlantis bade a bittersweet farewell to astronauts on the International Space Station yesterday, wrapping up the final visit by a space shuttle to the orbiting outpost.

As the shuttle age draws to a close after 37 dramatic rendezvous, their crews held a moving ceremony, exchanging embraces and kisses before shutting the hatches separating them for a final time at 1428 GMT.

Astronauts then placed an American flag seal over the passageway separating the shuttle and the space station, in a poignant gesture to symbolise the end of one era of US spaceflight and the dawn of a new one.

“We’re closing a chapter in the history of our nation,” said astronaut Ronald Garan, a flight engineer stationed on the ISS.

“In the future when another spacecraft docks to that hatch... we are going to be opening a new era and raising the flag on a new era of exploration,” Mr Garan said, as Atlantis wrapped up its near eight-day visit. Atlantis lifted off July 8 on the final flight of the shuttle program, STS-135, with a four member crew, lugging the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module containing supplies and spare parts for the space station.

The Atlantis crew was to spend the remainder of the day preparing for tomorrow’s undocking. The shuttle was to fly home on Thursday ahead of its retirement, which marks the end of the 30-year US space shuttle programme.