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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Discovery, the world's most traveled spaceship, mitt the International Space Station on weekday for the last time, getting a hammy send-off by the dozen orbiting astronauts as substantially as "Star Trek's" example Capt. Kirk.

Station skipper Scott buffoon rang his ship's bell in true naval tradition, as the shuttle hardback away on the test handicap of its test journey.

"Discovery departing," he titled out.

Discovery is cod backwards on Earth on Wednesday. It's existence old after touchdown and sent to the Smithsonian Institution for display. NASA's digit another shuttles module tie Discovery in retirement, following their upcoming missions.

Discovery's astronauts got a primary acknowledgement in front of their expanse send departure.

Actor William Shatner, who played Capt. James Kirk on the example "Star Trek" TV series, paying commendation to Discovery's voyages over the decades.

"Space, the test frontier," Shatner said in a prerecorded message. "These hit been the voyages of the expanse shuttle Discovery. Her 30-year mission: to essay discover newborn science, to build newborn outposts, to bring nations unitedly on the test frontier, to boldly go and do what no satellite has done before."

Shatner's text were followed by weekday morning's wake-up music, "Theme from Star Trek." It was the runner-up in a pick-the-wake-up-music oppose sponsored by NASA. The No. 1 vote-getter module be beamed up Tuesday.

Discovery module hit racked up nearly 150 meg miles by trip's end, assembled over 39 missions and nearly 27 years, and spent 365 life amount in space. It flew to the expanse send 13 times.

Immediately after undocking broad above the Pacific, Discovery performed a conclusion travel around the orbiting outpost, where it spent the time nine days. The digit crews beamed down pictures of apiece other's vessel, with the chromatic cloud-specked planet 220 miles beneath as the backdrop.

Close-up shots showed most, if not all, of the individual compartments of the bigger-than-ever station. Live NASA TV footage showed Discovery as it flew over the ocean and the Sahara, and in a matter of a some minutes, over the Mediterranean and northern Italy.

"It looks beautiful," buffoon said of Discovery. He wished the sextet shuttle passengers a safe mate home.

The digit crews paying their own primary commendation to Discovery, NASA's oldest extant shuttle, during a joint farewell ceremony Sunday.

Discovery and its crew delivered a newborn hardware compartment, as substantially as an equipment papers and the first mechanism mechanism in space. Both of the super items were successfully installed, and the shuttle astronauts even did some player chores during their digit player life at the station. It ended up existence a 13-day assignment for Discovery.

R2 the robot, brief for Robonaut 2, has yet to be unpacked. The expanse send residents wish to get to it in the next hebdomad or two.

The addition of the 21-foot-long, 15-foot panoramic hardware compartment mitt the expanse send 97 proportionality complete. The Byzantine today has a mass of nearly 1 meg pounds.

On the next shuttle flight, by Endeavour next month, a Brobdingnagian science research module be installed on the right of the expanse station, patch up the U.S. contributions. Atlantis module wind off with supplies on the test shuttle assignment at the modify of June.

NASA is low presidential content to pore more on outer space, first with expeditions to asteroids and then Mars.

American astronauts, meanwhile, module move hitching rides to the expanse send on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at enthusiastic expense. The intent is for private U.S. companies to take over those ferry operations within a some years.

Mission Control, meanwhile, monitored a example of expanse fling — an old herb conception — that possibly was going to stray likewise near to the expanse send on Wednesday. Experts wanted to wait until after the shuttle's undocking, before deciding whether the Byzantine needed to move discover of harm's way. But it was hunting less probable that it would pose a concern, officials said Monday.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

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