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News / Nation & World

Shuttle astronauts bid farewell to space station

The Columbian
Published: May 28, 2011, 5:00pm

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — There were handshakes and hugs all around in space.

The crews of space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station said goodbye to one another Sunday morning.

Shuttle commander Mark Kelly says their one-and-a-half weeks together went well. But now he and his crew are looking forward to getting home, and leaving the station crew “to some peace and quiet.”

Kelly was the last one to leave the space station. The hatches were closed behind him.

Endeavour will undock from the space station late Sunday night. The shuttle will return to Florida in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, never to fly in space again. Endeavour will be retired to a museum following this mission, the next-to-last for the shuttle program.

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