NASA Shuttle Atlantis: Undocked and heading home

The crew of the Shuttle Atlantis say a fond farewell to the commander and crew of the ISS.

The US shuttle Atlantis has undocked from the space station and is heading home to Earth one last time.

When the orbiter lands early on Thursday morning in Florida, it will bring to a close Nasa's 30-year re-usable spaceplane programme.
The shuttle undocked on schedule at 0628 GMT.

Atlantis is now heading for a point about 200m (600ft) from the station. It will fly around it to photograph the 400-tonne structure.

"Farewell ISS, make us proud," said Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson after the undocking.
Shuttles have routinely carried out the inspection procedure, but this one will be slightly different.

Onboard Russian computers are commanding the ISS to swing around 90 degrees. This means Atlantis will get a different perspective on the ISS as it loops over the outpost, getting a good look along the station's truss, or backbone, and at the ends of some of the modules.

The imagery will help engineers on the ground understand better how the materials that make up the ISS are coping in the harsh environment of space.

The Atlantis crew of four presented the station crew of six with two leaving presents before climbing aboard the orbiter and closing the hatch.

One was a model of the shuttle - a reminder of the pivotal role the vehicle has played in building the station. The other was a small American flag flown on the very first space shuttle mission in 1981.

This flag will be claimed by the first US commercial company to fly an astronaut vehicle to the ISS. Chris Ferguson, the Atlantis commander, said: "The flag represents not just a symbol of national pride and honour, but in this particular case it represents a goal."

"We're closing a chapter in the history of our nation," added astronaut Ronald Garan.

The first private companies to transport crew to and from the station are not expected to begin operations for at least three years.

Earlier on Monday, the 6.5m-long (21ft) Raffaello logistics module brought up by Atlantis and attached temporarily to the station was returned to the shuttle's payload bay. Raffaello was used to deliver some four tonnes of supplies to the ISS, including over a tonne of food.

The cylinder has been packed with about 2.5 tonnes of unneeded materials from the station that will be brought back to Earth.

The Southern Lights seen from the ISS. In the foreground (left to right) are a station solar wing, a robotic boom and the docked Atlantis