Endeavour makes final journey home

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Endeavour and its crew of six left the International Space Station and headed home to close out NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight, pausing just long enough yesterday to perform a victory lap and test equipment for a future interplanetary ship.

"Endeavour looks real nice out there," space station resident Ronald Garan Jr. called out.

The station crew beamed down video of the departing shuttle, the last ever shot of Endeavour in orbit. It was a dark, solitary image against the blue, cloud-covered Earth and grew increasingly smaller.

Endeavour, the baby of the NASA fleet with just 25 space voyages, is due back in Florida early Wednesday. Its next stop after that will be a museum in Los Angeles for what some consider to be an early retirement.

Endeavour undocked close to midnight Sunday, ending 11 1/2 days of joint flight. The two spacecraft were soaring more than 200 miles above Bolivia when they parted.

By the time they were over Eastern Europe, the shuttle astronauts could see the $2-billion cosmic ray detector they installed on the space station, as well as the new platform holding spare parts.

"We're the ones that get to see this incredible view, but you're all with us in spirit, and this is really a new day for science aboard the space station," shuttle commander Mark Kelly told Mission Control.

The space station now has a mass of 905,000 pounds and is 100 percent complete, at least as far as NASA's share of the 12-year project. On the fourth and final spacewalk of the mission Friday, the astronauts attached an extension pole and declared the construction effort over.

The Russian Space Agency still intends to add another compartment or two. But the other partners have all the major items they need already up there for the decade ahead.

Atlantis will make one last supply run to the space station this summer to close out the 30-year shuttle program. -- AP