Crew of the Atlantis space shuttle are preparing to land for one final time in an emotional homecoming.
The shuttle will land tomorrow morning at the Kennedy Space Centre marking the end of an era of US space travel.
Workers are now getting ready to prepare the shuttle for its retirement into a museum. Until at least 2015 the world's astronauts will have to fly with Russian Soyuz rockets until a new US rocket is ready for launch.
Atlantis took off for the last time on July 8 and it will land tomorrow in Titusville, Florida.
The crew of Atlantis undocked Tuesday from the International Space Station, wrapping up the last visit by a US shuttle to the orbiting outpost and setting its sights on an emotional homecoming.
With a spectacular orbital sunrise illuminating a vessel in the sunset of its career, Atlantis maneuvered away from the ISS about 350 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean.
"Thanks so much for hosting us. It's a great station, and it's been an absolute pleasure," Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson said of his crew's eight-day stay at the ISS, closing the book on the storied relationship between the two iconic spacecraft.
"We'll miss you guys. Godspeed," space station flight engineer Ronald Garan called out as Atlantis floated away.
As the age of the shuttle -- which has carried US astronauts into space longer than any other vessel -- drew to a close after 37 dramatic rendezvous with the ISS, their crews Monday exchanged embraces and kisses before shutting the hatches separating them for a final time.
The end of the shuttle program means that opportunities for astronauts to embark on journeys to space will become much rarer.
"Of course it's hard, because we dedicate our lives to fly in space. We are astronauts and it's what we do for a living," astronaut Steve Robinson, a veteran of four shuttle missions, earlier told AFP.
Over the course of the three-decade-long program, five NASA space shuttles -- Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour -- have comprised a fleet designed as the world's first reusable space vehicles.
In the video CNN reporter John Zarrella gets a tour of the legendary shuttle and meets the people who have been keeping the "family member" flying for the last 20 years.
