Discovery Leaves Station

Shuttle Discovery left the ISS yesterday during the US afternoon. The view above was taken as the shuttle backed away from the station. Remember, the shuttle can't be too close to the station when firing the OMS engines and has to be very careful using maneuvering thrusters as well, as they don't want to shower the station with thrust exhaust particles - which are toxic by the way, and the force of which could damage the station.

Today the astronauts will perform a final inspection of the heatshields using the camera on the robotic arm. There is always a chance that the orbiter could have been hit by debris cruising in orbit that the avoidance radars did not detect.

Makes me wish that NASA would hurry up and invent a "deflection field" like they use on STar Trek... ;)

The Discovery should be returning to Earth on Saturday.