CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Endeavour's astronauts set sail on a two-day trip back to Earth Saturday, winding up an electrifying week at the International Space Station with a looping photo shoot around the frontier outpost.

Fly-Around Photos

The ISS as it appeared to Endeavour during a fly-around inspection on Saturday. Click on an image to enlarge.

Jostling for cockpit window space, camera-wielding shuttle astronauts snapped stunning still pictures and captured vivid video as Endeavour pilot Michael Bloomfield guided the spaceship on a 45-minute station "flyaround."

Beamed back to the planet and broadcast on SPACE.com, some of the images showed the 13-story outpost with its new blue-and-gold solar wings glittering against the pitch-black vacuum of space. In others, the station cruised high above a blue Earth covered by wispy white clouds.

"It's an incredible sight - almost unbelievable," Bloomfield said.

"And we agree with you there," fellow astronaut Shannon Lucid replied from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.

The lapping of the station came after the 100-ton shuttle backed away from the equally massive outpost as the two craft soared high above the border of China and Kazakhstan.

The cosmic photo op gave ground engineers a documentary survey of the station's massive new solar wings, which stretch 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip. Some of the images, meanwhile, were so spectacular that the astronauts felt compelled to vouch for their authenticity.

"It looks sort of make-believe, but it is real," mission specialist Joe Tanner said as he sent down surreal video of the T-shaped station floating above the cloud-speckled planet.

"I'm glad you told us," Lucid replied.

Endeavour's departure from the station came six days, 23 hours and 47 minutes after the shuttle linked up with the outpost, which now sports three pressurized work areas, an emergency rescue craft and various power-producing appendages.

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During the hectic week that followed, shuttle astronauts carried out three daunting spacewalks, erecting a new $600 million electric tower atop the station before they unfurled and activated the giant arrays.

The amount of power available to run outpost systems quintupled as a result.

The International Space Station is seen with its new solar arrays after Endeavour's undocking on Saturday in this image from NASA TV.

"I think Christmas came early for the International Space Station," said senior NASA project manager Bob Cabana. "The space station has definitely spread its wings and is flying high on the success of this last mission."

Capable of generating 64 kilowatts of power, the new arrays enabled the station's first full-time tenants to open up the so-called U.S. Unity module, which had been sealed off because there was not enough electricity to heat it.

The availability of extra power also set the stage for the planned mid-January launch of the U.S. Destiny laboratory, a power-hungry module that will be the scientific heart of the station.

What's more, NASA and its 15 international partners now have enough power to support the $60 billion station construction project through December 2002, when the next set of U.S. solar arrays is to be delivered to the outpost.

Said Cabana: "The station is just going to continue growing by leaps and bounds, so hang on."

Ultimately, four sets of U.S. solar wings and a Russian power tower will be needed to juice the station, which eventually will weigh 480 tons and span an area as big as two football fields.

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Endeavour and its crew - which includes four U.S. astronauts and a Canadian mission specialist - now are scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center at 6:04 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (23:04 GMT) Monday.

Mission Endeavour

Look here for the latest news from NASA's STS-97.

"We wish you fair wind and (a) safe landing," station commander Bill Shepherd radioed the shuttle crew as Endeavour pulled away from the outpost.

Shepherd and his two station colleagues - Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev - have a much longer haul ahead of them. The trio will remain on the outpost until a replacement crew arrives in mid-February.

The Endeavour astronauts, meanwhile, plan to meet up with Shepherd and company when they return to terra firma later that month.

"We wish you the best of luck on the rest of your mission," shuttle skipper Brent Jett radioed the outpost crew as Endeavour zoomed away from the station. "We'll see you back at Kennedy Space Center in about three months."