SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C#31468

STS-117, Expedition 15 Close Hatches; Atlantis to Undock Tuesday

The STS-117 crew bid farewell Monday to the Expedition 15 crew before the hatches closed at 2251 UTC between Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. Attention now turns to Atlantis’ undocking from the station 1442 UTC. Tuesday.

The STS-117 crew members are wrapping up a stay in which they continued the on-orbit construction of the station with the installation of the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment. The crew installed the truss June 11 and conducted four spacewalks to activate the S3/S4 and assist in the retraction of solar array on the Port 6 truss. During the third spacewalk, the crew repaired an out –of-position thermal blanket on the left orbital maneuvering system pod.

Atlantis also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson. He replaced astronaut Suni Williams, who is the new record holder for a long-duration single spaceflight for a woman. She arrived at the station in December with STS-116.

Before Atlantis begins the journey home, Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Archambault will perform a fly-around to allow crew member collect video and imagery of the station and its newly expanded solar wings.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 1754 UTC Thursday.