Image Above: The space shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station after undocking. Image credit: NASA TV

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Discovery undocks from space station

Discovery undocked from the International Space Station at 5:32 a.m. EST as they flew over the South Pacific.

STS-120 Pilot George Zamka backed the orbiter about 400 feet from the station and performed a fly-around to allow crew members to collect video and imagery of the station in its new configuration. He completed the final separation engine burn at 7:15 a.m.

The shuttle crew members are using the shuttle robot arm and the 50-foot long Orbiter Boom Sensor System to conduct a late inspection of the thermal protection system.

The crew will spend Tuesday preparing for landing. Discovery’s first landing opportunity is at 1:02 p.m. Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

During its stay at the station, which began Oct. 25, the STS-120 crew continued the on-orbit construction of the station with the installation of the Harmony Node 2 module and the relocation of the P6 truss.

The crew installed Harmony Oct. 26 and did four spacewalks at the station. During the third spacewalk, the crew installed the P6 truss and solar array pair in its permanent location outboard of the port truss. The fourth spacewalk was changed during the mission so that the crew could repair a torn solar array on the P6 truss. Following the successful repair work, the crew was able to fully deploy the solar array.

Discovery also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Daniel Tani, KD5DXE. He replaced astronaut Clayton Anderson, KD5PLA. Anderson arrived at the station in June with STS-117.