NASA's Atlantis leaves space station, targets Earth

Atlantis departs International Space Station, crew to celebrate Thanksgiving in space

After a smooth and successful mission with the International Space Station, NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis this morning undocked from the station, prepared for an uneventful Thanksgiving and began its somewhat short journey back to Earth.

After completing a full circle around the ISS making sure everything was secure, the Atlantis fired its thrusters twice to depart the station’s vicinity, NASA stated. Atlantis is heading away from the station at about 1.5 feet per second, or about 4.5 miles per orbit.

Weather permitting the shuttle should land in Florida on Friday.

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After a smooth and successful mission with the International Space Station, NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis this morning undocked from the station, prepared for an uneventful Thanksgiving and began its somewhat short journey back to Earth.

After completing a full circle around the ISS making sure everything was secure, the Atlantis fired its thrusters twice to depart the station’s vicinity, NASA stated. Atlantis is heading away from the station at about 1.5 feet per second, or about 4.5 miles per orbit.

Weather permitting the shuttle should land in Florida on Friday.

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Reports indicate that the crew won’t be having turkey for thanksgiving but rather the crew’s regular food. "It could be beef brisket, it could be tofu, it doesn't matter to me," shuttle commander Charles Hobaugh said before Atlantis launched Nov. 16. "We're going to enjoy ourselves no matter what we do."

According to NASA, Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher and Nicole Stott spent time yesterday getting the shuttle ready for undocking.

Stott is returning to Earth after more than 90 days in space, including 87 days on the station, 80 of them as a member of the ISS Expedition 20 and 21 crews.

Meanwhile, the ISS is now under the command of a NASA astronaut. NASA's Jeff Williams took over command of the station on Nov. 24 from Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency, who served as the first European Space Agency commander of the complex. Williams also will lead the new Expedition 22 crew along with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. Expedition 22 begins with the undocking of the Soyuz Monday evening. It will be the first time the station has been tended by only two crew members since July 2006, according to NASA.

But it won’t be that way for that long as Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA's Timothy Creamer and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Space Agency, are set to launch in another Soyuz vehicle from Kazakhstan on Dec. 21 and join Expedition 22 on the station on Dec. 23.

Also on tap is the Dec. 1 landing of three International Space Station crew members who have lived and worked aboard the space station for the past 188 days. According to NASA, De Winne, Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko and Flight Engineer Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the station Nov. 30 and will land in Kazakhstan on Dec. 1. The three men spent 188 days in space.

The next space shuttle, Endeavor, STS-130 is aiming for a Feb 4, 2010 liftoff.

Endeavour will deliver a third connecting module - the Tranquility node - to the station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks, NASA said. STS-130 will be the 32nd shuttle mission to the station.

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