Endeavour leaves remodeled space station

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The shuttle Endeavour astronauts left the International Space Station on Friday after completing a marathon mission to remodel the research outpost into an orbital home for six.

Shuttle pilot Eric Boe gently pulsed Endeavour's steering jets at 9:48 a.m. EST (1438 GMT), slipping out of its docking port as the two ships sailed 221 miles above Taiwan.

"We miss you already," station commander Mike Finke radioed to the Endeavour crew even before the shuttle departed. "Thank you very much for the extreme home-makeover."

Endeavour leaves behind a space station nearly ready for its first permanent six-member crew, with a water recycling system, two new bedrooms, a second toilet and its first refrigerator.

The shuttle also delivered a new astronaut to work with Finke and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov, 44-year-old Sandra Magnus, a first-time flier who holds degrees in material science and engineering.

Magnus, who is scheduled to remain in orbit until NASA's next shuttle mission in February, replaced Greg Chamitoff, 46, an aeronautical engineer eager to return home to his wife and twin toddlers.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing my family," Chamitoff said during a farewell ceremony Thursday evening. "I just can't wait to get home. All my thoughts are there now."

Chamitoff spent six months on the station. He faces a strenuous rehabilitation program upon his return to NASA's Houston base.

In addition to outfitting the station's interior, Endeavour astronauts ventured outside the complex four times to work on a long-standing problem with a rotating joint needed to position solar wing panels to collect energy from the sun.

One of the two massive joints was contaminated with metal filings.

Spacewalkers Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Stephen Bowen and Shane Kimbrough took turns cleaning and lubricating the joint and replacing metal bearings. They also did some preventive maintenance on the station's second rotary joint.

The initial results are better than NASA had hoped and may allow the agency to forgo an expensive and time-consuming modification of the degraded joint, said station program manager Mike Suffredini.

Endeavour is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:18 p.m. EST on Sunday, completing NASA's fourth and final mission of the year.

NASA has eight more flights scheduled to the space station and a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope before the shuttles are retired in 2010.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Alan Elsner)