SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

The STS-115 crew bid farewell to its host and left the International Space Station. The hatches between the station and Space Shuttle Atlantis closed at 6:27 a.m. EDT. (1027 UTC)

The two crews will conduct leak checks before Atlantis undocks at 8:50 a.m. EDT. (1250 UTC)

Following undocking, Pilot Chris Ferguson will do a 360-degree fly-around of the station to allow his crewmates to collect imagery of the newly-expanded station. The fly-around will begin about 9:15 a.m. and conclude about 10:30 a.m.

STS-115 is the first of a series of the shuttle missions that will perform on-orbit construction of the station. Atlantis delivered the P3/P4 integrated truss to the station. The crews used the shuttle and station robotic arms to attach the truss to the orbital outpost. Then, STS-115 astronauts conducted three spacewalks in four days to prepare the truss and its solar arrays for operation.

Atlantis is scheduled to touch down at 5:57 a.m. Wednesday at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

For the latest information on space station activities, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html