It was a teary farewell for the astronauts aboard the linked shuttle Discovery and the International space Station, as Discovery makes its return journey to mother earth. Clayton Anderson who had spent five months in orbit is now headed home to be reunited with family and friends. He will be replaced by Daniel Tani, who will remain in orbit for the next two months.
The most difficult task undertook by the astronauts during their space mission was spending four days fixing a solar panel. A solar energy panel on a newly installed beam ripped while being unfurled. It took astronaut Scott Parazynski to undertake an unprecedented spacewalk to help fix the solar panel.
After their accomplishment six astronauts commandeered by Pamela Melroy is now headed for earth leaving three others in the space station. After pulling away from the space station, the shuttle will spent the Monday morning flying around the space station for picture taking. The engineers are particularly interested to see how the newly installed solar wing is affected by vibrations of undocking.
The shuttle had dropped a pressurized compartment, weighing nearly 34,000 pounds that will serve as a docking port for future laboratories. Discovery’s 15-day mission will end on Wednesday when it will touch the earth.
