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Summary
The US shuttle Atlantis and its six crewmen are heading back to Earth, wrapping up the craft's 32nd - and probably final - trip into space.Atlantis undocked from the upgraded and almost completed International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, some 354km above the Indian Ocean.It is set to arrive at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 0848 local time (1248 GMT) on Wednesday.Only two more shuttle flights remain before the fleet is retired.Before heading home, the shuttle crew still has to conduct a last inspection of the spacecraft, making sure it wasn't damaged during the mission.Right before the departure, the ISS astronauts thanked the ship's crew, urging them to stay safe.After Atlantis touches down in Florida, it is unlikely to fly again - the White House wants to discontinue the entire shuttle programme.Atlantis spent a week flying jointly with the station, where it successfully installed a new 8t, 6m-long Russian Mini-Research Module 1 Rassvet (Dawn) packed with 1.5t of Nasa cargo.The station's astronauts opened the new module on 20 May. Rassvet will be used for cargo storage and as a fourth docking port for the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft's crew and cargo vehicles.While out on three spacewalks, Atlantis mission specialists Steve Bowen, Michael Good and Garrett Reisman replaced six solar array batteries on the orbiting platform and installed a backup communications Ku-band antenna and a robot tool tray.Three hours before undocking, the two commanding officers and all 10 members of both crews shook hands and embraced.This is the time when we have to say goodbye to our friends, our colleagues, the excellent crew of shuttle Atlantis that did an excellent job performing three EVAs, installing the new Russian module, having good fun, enjoying living on the station and working in space, the ISS Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov told Ken Ham, who leads the Atlantis crew. Thank you Ken, for an excellent job.Commander Ham responded: Well, Oleg, we are one happy shuttle crew, and we are happy because of all of your efforts, too.Kotov, together with a flight engineer TJ Creamer and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, are shortly set to follow the Atlantis crew back to Earth after half a year in space. They will head to Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz TMA-17 capsule on 1 June.
