Mission accomplished, shuttle leaves station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Sep 17 (Reuters) With hugs and handshakes, the shuttle Atlantis astronauts left the space station crew today, climbed aboard their ship and fired steering jets to begin the journey back to Earth.

Before leaving the station's orbit, the six-member crew circled the outpost, admiring the glittering solar-energy wings they installed during NASA's first station assembly mission since the 2003 Columbia accident.

''It was really a spectacular sight to see your vehicle from above, looking down on the Earth,'' Atlantis commander Brent Jett radioed to station flight engineer Jeff Williams.

''Thanks for all the good work,'' Williams replied. ''We look forward to seeing you back in Houston.'' Williams and station commander Pavel Vinogradov are nearing the end of their six-month stay in space. Russia is launching a new crew, along with American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, at 12:09 a.m. EDT (0939 hrs IST) tomorrow.

The shuttle spent a week at the International Space Station to install a 372 million dollars upgrade that will double the amount of power available for station equipment and systems. NASA plans to fly at least 14 more construction missions before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

''We have one lap done in a long race,'' NASA lead flight director Phil Engelauf told reporters. ''There are a lot of difficult milestones ahead.'' Atlantis' flight has rebuilt NASA's confidence to resume night launches of the shuttles, a practice suspended after a chunk of insulating foam dropped off shuttle Columbia's fuel tank during launch in 2003 and smashed a hole in the ship's heat shield. The shuttle was destroyed and its seven-member crew killed as it attempted to fly through the atmosphere for landing.

As part of the more than 1 billion dollas safety upgrade made after the accident, NASA increased the number of cameras on the ground and aboard the shuttle to look for debris during launch.

But daytime launches, mandated for better camera views, significantly cut down the number of flight opportunities for the shuttle to get to the station.

''The team overall does feel extremely confident about launching at night,'' said John Shannon, deputy space shuttle program manager.

The agency plans to rely on radar to look for falling tank debris, and will use illumination from the shuttle's solid rocket boosters for photography. Assessment of the shuttle's heat shield will continue with in-flight inspections and from analysis of vibration sensors in the wings that should detect debris impacts.

NASA plans to continue with space station construction with the launch of shuttle Discovery in December.

Atlantis is due back at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.

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