This
story was updated at 6:59 p.m. EDT.
HOUSTON --
Seven astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis cast off from the International
Space Station (ISS) Tuesday, leaving the orbital laboratory with a more
balanced look after installing new starboard solar wings.
"We'll see
you back on planet Earth," Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow told the space
station's Expedition 15 crew as the shuttle departed.
Atlantis undocked
from the space station at 10:42 a.m. EDT (1442 GMT) as both spacecraft
passed 213 miles (342 kilometers) above the Coral Sea off the coast of
Australia.
Sturckow
and his STS-117 crew arrived at the ISS on June 10 and performed four
spacewalks to install a new pair of 17.5-ton trusses and unfurl
two new solar arrays to the station's starboard side. The astronauts also
stowed an older solar wing atop the station, stapled down a torn shuttle
thermal blanket and assisted the Expedition 15 crew to revive
vital Russian ISS computer systems after they failed last week.
During the
shuttle mission, a new ISS crewmember relieved NASA astronaut Sunita Williams,
who passed the 191-day mark in space Tuesday and is setting a new record for
the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut. She joined the space station
crew in December 2006 and relinquished her Expedition 15 flight engineer post
to fellow NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson.
"Godspeed
Atlantis," Anderson said as the shuttle pulled away from the ISS. "Thank you
for everything."
The STS-117
crew is slated to land at 1:54 p.m. EDT (1754 GMT) Thursday at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with additional landing attempts on
Friday and Saturday if weather intervenes, the space agency said. The shuttle has
enough supplies to stay in orbit until Sunday, though that extra day would be
reserved in the case of an unforeseen malfunction, NASA officials said.
Atlantis
will take up a station-keeping position about 46 miles (73 kilometers) from the
ISS while its crew uses a sensor-laden boom to perform a second detailed
inspection of the orbiter's heat shield later today. Known as a late
inspection, the survey is now a standard activity for all shuttle missions
after NASA's 2003 Columbia accident and will scan the Atlantis' wings and nose
cap for any orbital debris and micrometeorite damage sustained during the
spaceflight.
An
identical inspection conducted on June 9 verified the integrity of the
shuttle's heat shield after its launch one day earlier, leading mission
managers to clear Atlantis for landing pending today's follow-up survey.
NASA said late Tuesday that image analysts were also tracking the source of an apparent piece of debris seen in video cameras aboard Atlantis to determine if it came from the orbiter of the ISS.
Space
station power boost
Atlantis'
STS-117 mission is the first of up to four planned shuttle flights this year to
continue assembly of the ISS. The new solar arrays delivered by the shuttle
astronauts primed the station's power grid to support the addition of a new connecting module
and European laboratory slated to launch later this year.
"It's
really exciting to see the station in this configuration," said ISS flight
director Holly Ridings early Monday. "I think we all feel like we accomplished
the mission objectives."
Shuttle
pilot Lee Archambault flew Atlantis around the ISS while his crewmates photographed
the space station for engineers back on Earth. Prior to the NASA's STS-117
mission, the station
had an off-kilter look with one set of portside solar arrays deployed and
half of an older solar wing partly stowed atop the outpost.
"It looks
beautiful," Sturckow said of the station's new profile.
Meanwhile,
the station's Russian ISS control and navigation computers continue to function
properly after they were resuscitated Saturday, Ridings said. All six computers
governing the station's Russian-built segment crashed last week after
redundant, surge protector-like secondary power sources failed in each of them.
Working
together with Russian engineers on Earth, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor
Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov - both Russian cosmonauts - bypassed
the faulty components and reactivated the computers. ISS flight controllers,
meanwhile, are still working to determine exactly what caused the devices to
fail.
"The space
station is in very, very good shape," Riding said.
The
Atlantis crew left the ISS with additional supplies of oxygen and other cargo
before leaving the ISS, including: 115 pounds (52 kilograms) of oxygen, 1,660 pounds
(752 kilograms) of water, and some spare parts to replenish those used in the
Russian computer system fix.
The shuttle
is returning about 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) of experiments, unneeded
equipment and other items from the ISS.
Carrying on
a new tradition aboard the ISS, Anderson has already come up with
his own game to play with Mission Control on Earth dubbed "Space Traveler
Trivia" and the end of each day.
"Clay, we
think, is going to be a lot of fun," Ridings said.
Late
Monday, Yurchikhin lamented today's departure of Atlantis after a heartfelt
farewell ceremony between the station and shuttle crews.
"Everything
is kind of empty, devoid of life," the Expedition 15 commander told Russian
Mission Control of the ISS.
NASA is broadcasting the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission live on NASA
TV. Click here for mission updates
and SPACE.com's video feed.
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