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Shuttle homebound from outpost
©Associated Press
December 3, 2002
CAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the international space station Monday and headed for home with the one American and two Russians who spent the past six months aboard the orbiting outpost.
"We promise to take good care of the space station," astronaut Donald Pettit told its departing commander Valery Korzun.
Before leaving, shuttle skipper James Wetherbee urged Pettit to try to keep his sense of humor during the long stretch ahead. "Oh, I will," Pettit assured him.
Endeavour is due back on Earth on Wednesday, though storms are forecast for Cape Canaveral and could delay the long-overdue homecoming for Korzun and astronauts Sergei Treschev and Peggy Whitson.
They spent an extra 11/2 months aloft because of various shuttle problems; Monday was their 180th day in orbit.
The space station's three new occupants are Pettit, astronaut Kenneth Bowersox and Russian astronaut Nikolai Budarin. Unlike the first five sets of space station residents, they will spend the next four months in solitude, with no one showing up until it is their turn to go home in March.
Endeavour departed after its crew delivered and installed a new $390-million girder on the space station.
The two spacecraft separated 250 miles above Australia, ending one week of joint flight.
As Endeavour sailed off into the darkness, Wetherbee wished Bowersox and his crew "fair winds and following seas." Both men are Navy captains.
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