spacetoday.net: Shuttle leaves ISS for Tuesday landing

Posted: Sun, Aug 19, 2007, 11:27 AM ET (1527 GMT)
STS-118: ISS after undocking (NASA)

The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station Sunday morning, one day earlier than previously planned to allow the shuttle to return home in advance of a threatening hurricane. Endeavour undocked from the ISS at 7:56 am EDT (1156 GMT) Sunday morning and departed from the vicinity of the space station shortly thereafter. The shuttle undocked from the station a day earlier than planned to allow the shuttle to land on Tuesday, in the event powerful Hurricane Dean headed for the Texas coast by mid-week and forced an evacuation of Mission Control in Houston. The shuttle is now scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:30 pm EDT (1630 GMT) Tuesday. The early departure required NASA to shorten an EVA Saturday, taking 90 minutes off a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk by Dave Williams and Clay Anderson. The two astronauts performed a variety of minor station assembly tasks during the spacewalk.