Atlantis Heads Home; ‘Red Carpet’ Left at Space Station

Space shuttle Atlantis’ astronauts tidied up their ship Monday for the ride home, leaving behind a fully stocked international space station.

NASA expects the space station’s first resident crew to arrive in six weeks, culminating years of uncertainty and delay.

“This crew certainly has laid out the red carpet,” said space station manager Robert Cabana. “They accomplished everything that we asked them to do, everything we wished they could do and, I think, about everything we dreamed that they could do.”

All that remains is for Atlantis to return to Earth before daybreak Wednesday.

Atlantis and its crew of seven flew two laps around the space station early Monday, following a smooth undocking the night before. The astronauts beamed down video that engineers will use to assess the condition of the metallic outpost.

“It sparkled like a jewel out there when it was against the blue background of the ocean, a very, very beautiful sight for us,” said Atlantis pilot Scott Altman.

The shuttle astronauts put away more than 6,000 pounds of supplies for the three men who are scheduled to move in at the beginning of November. They also installed the toilet, oxygen generator and treadmill inside the living quarters, which were linked up to the space station in July.

Russia’s economic crisis had stalled construction of the living quarters, which in turn had stalled space station assembly in orbit for more than two years.

“We pretty much got the place ready to live in,” Altman said. “Maybe we left a couple of surprises for the future crew, but we don’t want to give everything away. We’ll let them discover it when they get up there.”

American astronaut Bill Shepherd and his two-cosmonaut crew will move in Oct. 30.