Space Shuttle Discovery start its journey back home

Space Shuttle Discovery start its journey back home

Space Shuttle Discovery has finally undocked from the International Space Station and has begun preparing for its journey back home.

Discovery would be carrying back six astronauts as German astronaut Thomas Reiter was left behind for a six-month ISS stay.

It is scheduled to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday. The mission was only the second one after the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere in January 2003.

Discovery pilot Mark Kelly said in a statement: “Based on what we’ve seen over the last 10 days, the inspections we’ve done… we’ve got a great ship. It’s ready to come home.”

The mission has been a success and it included three spacewalks and repairs vital to resuming building work on the ISS.