Endeavor Space Crew Bids Farewell to International Space Station

The crew of NASA’s space shuttle Endeavor are ready to head home.

The mission to finish off construction of the U.S. side of the International Space Station is complete.

The crew accomplished a number of maintenance tasks and four spacewalks during their ten day stay.

On Sunday they bid farewell to the orbital outpost.

[Mark Kelly, Endeavor Commander]:

„We got ELC-3 installed, we did four very successful spacewalks, and a bunch of transfer, and it was a very good ten days or so that we were docked here. We are looking forward to getting home and we are going to leave these guys to peace and quiet and not disturb their space station anymore.“

Among the Endeavor’s tasks on the space station was reinstalling an upgraded air purification system, servicing the cooling and power systems and extending the reach of its robotic crane.

After saying their fond farewells, the crew departed the outpost and are expected to return to earth for early on Wednesday.

NASA plans one more mission to the station in July, using the sister shuttle Atlantis.

The shuttle program is then being retired to free up funds to develop spacecraft capable of travel deeper into space.

Foto: NTD