Article Posted on : - Nov 26, 2009

Space shuttle Atlantis flies around the International Space Station after undocking. Image Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON (AFP/PTI): The space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-astronaut crew undocked from the International Space Station on Wednesday as it prepared its return to Earth.

Atlantis lifted from the orbiting outpost at 0953 GMT.

Pilot Barry Wilmore then circled the space station before firing the shuttle's thrusters twice at 1104 and 1132 GMT to leave the vicinity.

The shuttle moved away at 1.5 feet (0.46 meters) per second or about 7.2 kilometres per orbit, according to the US space agency NASA.

The astronauts are scheduled to land back on Earth at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:44 am (1444 GMT) Friday.

They completed three spacewalks to install high-tech equipment on the ISS during an eventful 11-day mission that also saw mission specialist Randy Bresnik buoyed by the birth of his second daughter, Abigail Mae Bresnik, back on Earth late Saturday, shortly after his first ever spacewalk.

He got the news by private phone patch through mission control after the crew was awakened.

During their stay, the astronauts installed communications antennas and a wireless video system, changed the location of a monitor for electrical hazards, deployed a cargo attachment system and placed an oxygen tank and new scientific experiment outside the station.