At last, after an extended, complex and almost restless mission which in the end took 12 days, the spaceship Endeavour departed from the International Space Station early today and now carries the remaining or replaced pieces of equipment, as well as a crew of seven astronauts back to Earth, according to the Associated Press. Some of the astronauts aboard the shuttle are not the ones who embarked on it 12 days ago, since they were replaced during this latest mission.

A lot has happened during nearly two weeks, including the fact that the ship was almost canceled due to weather conditions or that an important instrument that it delivered - a wastewater recycler - had broken and required extra repairs, the main reason the mission was extended. But now the crew members are on their way to a good rest, proper food, as they must prepare for sharing loads of stories from their time aboard the ISS.

 

Prior to leaving the space station, Mike Fincke, a current ISS resident, thanked the astronauts on Endeavour for "the extreme home makeover," as MSNBC quotes him, that drastically upgraded the potential of the station to house a double crew. Currently, the station is properly equipped (provided that the urine purifier keeps working and that the water it generates is cleared for drinking, both metaphorically and literally speaking) to sustain a team of six people, perform a larger series of tests and collect more data via the newly-provided instruments.

 

There are more bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, new science tools such as an agricultural camera, and experiments going on, like observing the life cycle of spiders and butterflies in zero gravity conditions, so life just became even more interesting and pleasant for the space station inhabitants. The group of astronauts aboard Endeavour is expected to arrive on Earth (this sounds like a line from a SF movie) on Sunday. We will provide more details after they land.