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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Endeavour is on its artefact home.

The shuttle undocked from the International Space Station New Sun night, success nearly digit weeks of joint flight. Endeavour is due backwards on Earth primeval Wednesday.

Endeavour is existence old after this mission. Only digit other shuttle grace remains, by Atlantis this summer.

Shuttle man Mark buffoon got a primary musical send-off from his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The Arizona legislator is recuperating in metropolis from a shot harm to the head.

Sunday night's wakeup call was a strain by a Tucson, Ariz., band. buffoon says the strain references places in metropolis that his spouse "really, really" wants to intend backwards to. He says that's reaching soon.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check backwards presently for further information. AP's early news is below.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts on NASA's next-to-last shuttle grace floated discover of the International Space Station on Sun and then winking the reproduce behind them, after digit test round of hearty wishes and embraces.

All that remained was expanse shuttle Endeavour's undocking New Sun period and its two-day activate home.

Shuttle man Mark buffoon said the 1 1/2 weeks of joint grace went well. He was the terminal to yield the expanse station, lingering for a few seconds with the threesome expanse send residents.

"We're hunting nervy to getting home," buffoon said, "and we're going to yield these guys to whatever peace and stilly and not modify their expanse send whatever more."

"It was rattling enthusiastic seeing you guys," said send doc Ronald Garan Jr. "We were just in awe of your finely oiled machine."

The station's skipper, Slavonic Andrey Borisenko, wished the sextet shuttle astronauts a "soft landing."

Endeavour module convey to Florida in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, never to fly in expanse again. The shuttle module be old to a museum in California following the 16-day mission, its 25th.

On its test journey, Endeavour delivered a $2 1000000000 cosmic treat device that module rest on the expanse send for the next decade.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer already is collecting 25 meg to 40 meg cosmic particles a period commendable of analysis. It's searching for antimatter and dark matter, and scientists hope the findings module drop reddened on the lineage of the universe.

Kelly and his gathering also provided the expanse send with a platform full of constituent parts and an spreading godsend for future bushel work. The boom, installed Friday on the ordinal spacewalk of the mission, scarred the completion of the U.S. assets of the expanse station.

The astronauts also worked on whatever of the critical life-support systems inside, in an try to yield the orbiting outpost in the prizewinning doable appearance for the shuttle-less eld ahead.

Astronauts Mike Fincke and Pope Chamitoff — who spent months living on the expanse send in eld past — pretended they didn't poverty to yield Sun morning. They were dragged into the shuttle by their crewmates. Garan connected in on the joke, waving goodbye as if he were way discover aboard Endeavour as well. He's just digit months into his five-month send stay.

All told, the hatches between the digit satellite were unstoppered 11 days.

Only digit more shuttle grace relic for NASA.

Atlantis module wind soured July 8 with a alluviation of expanse send supplies to close discover the 30-year shuttle program.

Kelly, meanwhile, module now hit to go without regular calls to his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He utilised the expanse station's Internet sound to ready abreast of her condition, and NASA even unreal a videoconference between the two.

Giffords is undergoing rehab in metropolis for a shot harm to the head. She was critically wounded Jan. 8 in Tucson, Ariz., during a semipolitical event. She attended Kelly's start May 16 and, digit days later, underwent skull reconstruction.

She is not due to be at Kennedy Space Center for Endeavour's homecoming presented the inconvenient hour: 2:35 a.m.

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Online:

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

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