HEADLINES:
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Oil Dad spaced out over new baby
November 26, 2009 Edition 1
WASHINGTON: Nasa shuttle Atlantis undocked from the orbiting space station yesterday for the final leg of a picture-perfect mission that included an astronaut becoming a dad.
The shuttle is set to land at Cape Canaveral, in Florida, tomorrow.
The six crew members leave six colleagues on the International Space Station (ISS).
With the birth of his daughter soon after he had completed a space walk, American Randy Bresnik became the second astronaut to become a father while in space. The first was Michael Fincke in 2004.
The shuttle brought tons of extra supplies to the ISS in anticipation of its final year in service next year. There are just five more launches scheduled and one year left in the 30-year shuttle programme.
Russia's Soyuz spacecraft will provide the sole transport to and from the ISS. Russia also has unmanned cargo vessels with limited lifting capacity.
Nasa is developing the next generation spacecraft with an eye on returning humans to the moon or travelling to Mars and beyond. Full support for the plans is still undecided by the Obama government and Congress.
If approved, the programme would carry the crew on a rocket reminiscent of the Apollo missions and which engineers say is safer than the shuttle design. - Sapa-dpa
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