Shuttle leaves behind rewired space station

Shuttle Discovery’s astronauts left behind a successfully rewired International Space Station on Tuesday as they began the journey home after an eight-day visit.

Discovery smoothly undocked from the outpost as they sailed 220 miles above the Indian Ocean. Three hours earlier, the seven shuttle astronauts and the station’s three residents held a brief farewell ceremony before parting ways.

“It’s always a goal to try and leave someplace in a better shape [than] it was when you came and I think we’ve accomplished that due to everybody’s hard work,” shuttle commander Mark Polansky said. “I hope that we’re really on our way to a great start for [station] assembly completion.”

The outpost was rewired from a temporary electrical system to its permanent power grid during two spacewalks, setting the stage for future laboratories. A structural truss was added during another spacewalk; it will support a set of power-producing solar panels. And a stubborn wing on the set of panels that will be relocated atop the truss next year was folded up and stored after five days of effort that included an impromptu fourth spacewalk.

Besides doing electrical work and dropping off supplies, Discovery’s crew will ferry home German astronaut Thomas Reiter, who spent five months on the station after arriving on the shuttle in July. His replacement, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, is scheduled to remain aboard the station for six months and return in June on Endeavour.

The station’s commander, American Michael Lopez-Alegria, hailed Reiter as a model astronaut for his hard work in orbit.

“I’ve been in space with 32 different people,” Lopez-Alegria told Reiter, before pinning on a set of makeshift wings that designated him an honorary NASA astronaut. “None of them displayed a greater combination of competence, conscientiousness and consistency as you.... I think that there are many, many people who should be proud of you on the ground.”

Today, the shuttle crew will conduct a second routine inspection of the ship’s heat shielding to make sure everything is in good shape for Discovery’s descent home through Earth’s atmosphere. The astronauts plan to pack up the shuttle Thursday and check out crucial systems in preparation for a planned Friday landing at the Kennedy Space Center.