Shuttle Prepares to Head Home

Discovery and space station crews shut the hatches between their vessels

By Laurel Jorgensen, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 10, 2008 9:07 PM CDT

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Shuttle Prepares to Head Home — This image provided by NASA shows astronaut Karen Nyberg, STS-124 mission specialist, as she floats on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Discovery while docked with the International Space Station. (AP Photo/NASA)

Shuttle astronauts bid farewell to the crew of the International Space Station today and closed the hatch between their spacecrafts, Space.com reports. Discovery plans to undock from the station tomorrow morning after a busy weeklong mission and begin a 4-day trip home. The shuttle crew delivered and installed a huge new space lab for the station.

“It’s been an amazing adventure,” said astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who arrived on the shuttle and will be staying on the space station for six months. “I wanted to say that a lot of us were rookies before this flight, and it’s been a real honor and privilege to be part of the shuttle crew.” (More Discovery space shuttle stories.)

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