Endeavour cast off from the ISS at 9.56pm AEST ending a stay of close to nine days at the orbiting laboratory to continue construction efforts. The U.S. space agency says the shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station in preparation for an earlier-than-expected landing.
Hurricane Dean, a powerful category four storm rolling through the Caribbean, could hit the US coast in Texas on Thursday, prompting NASA to cut short the shuttle mission by 24 hours.
Landing is targeted for 12:31 p.m. ET Tuesday, rather than Wednesday as originally scheduled. Because of the early end to the mission, the astronauts had to leave a few tasks undone, and Endeavour teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan had to skip a conversation with schoolchildren.
NASA officials say they want to land the shuttle early in case Hurricane Dean threatens the Houston control center, which directs all shuttle operations.
The powerful storm with 230-kilometer per hour winds is battering Jamaica and is forecast to move through the Gulf of Mexico later this week.
Earlier in the week, NASA officials decided the spacecraft would return to Earth without repairs to a small gouge in its exterior heat shield.
Endeavour’s commander, Scott Kelly says the crew agrees with that decision and with engineers who say that a repair spacewalk could potentially cause even more damage.
During the mission astronauts have carried out four spacewalks, installed a new piece of the space station’s main truss, replaced a defective gyroscope and delivered 2.6 tonnes of supplies and equipment.