This
story was updated at 5:12 p.m. EDT.
Space
shuttle Discovery cast off from the International Space Station Tuesday and
began the trip back to Earth, wrapping up nearly nine days of joint work by 13
astronauts aboard both spacecraft.
Discovery
undocked from the space station at about 3:26 p.m. EDT (1926 GMT) as the two
spacecraft flew 220 miles (354 km) over western China near the Mongolian
border.
"Houston
and station from Discovery, physical separation," astronaut Tim Kopra said from
the shuttle as it backed away from the orbiting laboratory. Kopra is returning
to Earth on the shuttle to end a two-month flight to the space station.
Sturckow
and his crew launched
to the station Aug. 28 on a 13-day mission to deliver vital supplies,
science gear and a new crewmember for the space station's six-person crew. They
performed three spacewalks to retrieve old experiments from the station,
replace a massive coolant tank and swap out broken components.
"Alright,
you guys, Godspeed, you're on your way home," said station astronaut
Michael Barratt.
Before
leaving the station, shuttle pilot Kevin Ford flew Discovery on a victory lap
around the orbiting lab while his crewmates took photographs. Astronauts on the
station also watched as Discovery circled their spacecraft.
"Those were
great views of that magnificent spaceship as it flew under us," Barratt said. "We
were all glued to the windows."
Skywatchers
in the United States and southern Canada have several opportunities over the
next two days to spot the
shuttle and station, weather permitting.
NASA
officials also said Tuesday that the space station will not have to dodge a
piece of space junk left over from a Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007. The
orbital trash was expected to zip by the space station twice early Wednesday at
a comfortable distance of about 15 miles (25 km) of the outpost.
Station
supply run
Altogether,
the astronauts delivered 18,548 pounds (8,413 kg) of supplies to the space
station and are returning about 5,223 pounds (2,369 kg) of trash and surplus
items back to Earth.
The nearly
11-year-old space station is now 84 percent complete and weighs about 711,000
pounds (322,504 kg), NASA officials said Tuesday. Astronauts have compared the
interior living space of the station's nine rooms to the passenger cabin of a
jumbo jet.
The
shuttle also ferried NASA astronaut Nicole Stott to the station, where she
replaced Kopra on the orbiting laboratory's six-person crew. Stott is beginning
a three-month stay at the
space station with two big chores already on her plate.
Later this
month, Stott will use the station's robotic arm to capture Japan's first-ever
unmanned cargo ship and attach it to an Earth-facing berth on the orbiting lab.
JAXA, Japan's space agency, will launch the
new spaceship on Thursday. It is expected to arrive at the station Sept.
17.
Stott will
also help build the station's new $5 million treadmill, which is named after TV
comedian Stephen Colbert and was delivered to the station in more than 100
pieces.
Colbert won
the naming rights for a new space station room in an online NASA poll earlier
this year, but the space agency named the module Tranquility - the Apollo 11
moon base - to honor the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.
NASA named the new station treadmill the Combined Operational Load Bearing
External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT, as a consolation prize.
Later tonight,
Discovery astronauts plan to take one last look at their spacecraft's heat
shield to check for new damage from space junk or micrometeorites. The standard
survey will take hours, but is identical to one performed just after launch
that found the heat shield panels on Discovery's wing edges and nose cap in fine
shape.
Discovery
is due to land Thursday at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT) on a NASA runway at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SPACE.com
is providing complete coverage of Discovery's STS-128 mission to the
International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff Writer
Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click
here for shuttle mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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