Atlantis Preparing to Return to Earth

The seven astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis completed the final inspection of the shuttle's heat shields, mere hours after undocking from the international space station. According to the Associated Press, the inspection is necessary to ensure that the heat shields are ready for re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

The thirteen day mission of Atlantis is due to return to Earth on Thursday at 1:54 p.m, weather permitting, at Kennedy Space Center.

Atlantis' pilot, Lee Archambault, made a circle around the space station to take photos of recent installations of solar arrays.

The commander of Atlantis, Rick Sturckow, bid a farewell to the two Russian astronauts and one American astronaut remaining on the space station. "Have a great remainder of your expedition. We'll see you back on planet Earth," he said, according to the AP.

The Atlantis crew had a very scary moment when, just over an hour after undocking from the space station, a piece of debris resembling a blanket, along with five blinking particles, floated by the space station. So far, engineers at NASA do not know what the debris could be, although the debris is still examining photos and videos. Cathy Koerner, a NASA flight director, claims that the blinking particles could be "pieces of ice that are a byproduct of the shuttle's jets," according to the AP.

Although at this point, it is not known exactly what the debris is, Mike Suffredini, space station manager at NASA, states that their initial analysis of the debris indicates it is very small, and they believe that it did not come from the space station. He said, according to the AP, that the debris is "not a big concern."

Although the results from the final inspection of the shuttle's heat shields are not expected until Wednesday, engineers do not expect any problems. The re-entry of the shuttle into the Earth's atmosphere should be on schedule.