HOUSTON – Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station at 3:53 a.m. CST Wednesday, ending a successful resupply visit that included three spacewalks. The total docked time was 6 days, 17 hours and 2 minutes.
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Atlantis brought to the station about 14 tons of cargo in its payload bay, including two large carriers with heavy spare parts that were installed on the station. The shuttle also carried about a ton of cargo in its crew cabin. It is bringing home about the same weight of cabin cargo from the orbiting laboratory.
Before separating the two crews took questions from reporters at NASA facilities, Mission Control Moscow, and from Canadian and French reporters.
At 9 a.m., shortly after a joint crew photo, De Winne handed over command of the station to Williams. De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk are scheduled to leave the station for return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on Nov. 30.
Just after the change of command ceremony, Atlantis crew members began a two-hour, off-duty period. The hatch closure was preceded by a farewell ceremony of the two crews. Atlantis’ first landing opportunity is at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:44 a.m. Friday.
Atlantis Commander Charles Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher Jr. and Nicole Stott are scheduled to land at 8:44 a.m. Friday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After undocking, Wilmore piloted the shuttle in a circle around the station at a distance of about 600 feet. Crew members shot photographs and video to document the orbiting laboratory’s condition.
A routine disposal overboard of waste water and urine collected aboard Atlantis was terminated early. It is not necessary to dump the now half-full collection tank before landing Friday. Flight controllers have a workaround available for the crew to bypass a suspected clogged filter and dump the liquid, if landing is delayed.
About 7:15 a.m. Wilmore and Melvin began grappling and unberthing the Orbital Boom Sensor System, the camera- and sensor-equipped extension of the shuttle’s robotic arm, for the standard late survey of the shuttle’s heat shield. With help from Bresnik, they inspected the reinforced carbon-carbon of the right wing leading edge, then the nose cap and the left wing leading edge. The task took more than five hours.
On the station, Expedition 21 Commander Jeffrey Williams and Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne resumed more regular activities. They also continued preparations for the Nov. 30 departure of De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk in a Soyuz capsule.
(The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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