The US space shuttle Atlantis is poised to leave the International Space Station after a nine-day visit that gave the laboratory a European annex and a French scientist to bolster its crew.
After an emotional farewell in orbit, seven Atlantis crew members closed the hatches yesterday in preparation for the undocking scheduled for 9.27am Irish time.
Aboard Atlantis is US astronaut Daniel Tani, who is returning to Earth after working on the ISS since October. Mr Tani is married to an Irish woman and took part in a live link-up with Cork school children earlier this year.
But the spaceship is leaving behind Frenchman Leopold Eyharts, a medical researcher and engineer from France’s National Centerá of Space Studies.
Ten years ago he worked for more than 20 days aboard the now-defunct Russian Space Station Mir. He performed experiments in the areas of medical research, neuroscience, biology, fluid physics and technology.
Mr Eyharts will stay aboard the station until March, getting the newly installed European-made Columbus laboratory, a new facility delivered into orbit by Atlantis, up to speed.
During Atlantis's stay at the station, astronauts conducted three spacewalks to attach Columbus to the ISS and prepare it for scientific work. They also replaced an expended nitrogen tank on a key truss aboard the complex.
Reflecting on the past and future of the station, Mr Tani said it represented a vivid example of how international relations had switched from confrontation to cooperation since World War II and the Cold War.
If everything goes as planned, Atlantis will land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday.
The return of the Atlantis is anxiously awaited by the US Navy, which plans to shoot down a disabled spy satellite that is threatening to plunge into Earth's atmosphere sometime in late February or early March.
Watch live as Atlantis begins its journey back to earth
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