‘See You Guys’: Shuttle Crew Departs Alpha

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —  Space shuttle Endeavour flew away from space station Alpha on Saturday, leaving behind powerful solar wings that already have improved life on the orbiting outpost.

Alpha’s three residents watched as Endeavour and its crew of five undocked more than 230 miles above central Asia. They won’t have any more visitors until late next month, when another shuttle arrives.

Their farewell, after just one day together, included hearty handshakes and hugs. The two spacecraft were linked for one week, but the hatches between them had remained sealed until Friday.

“Do svidanya,” a shuttle astronaut called out. (That’s Russian for goodbye.) “See you guys,” replied one of the station’s Russian crewmen.

Navy Capt. Bill Shepherd, the station’s skipper, and Navy Cmdr. Brent Jett Jr., the shuttle’s skipper, followed the same naval tradition that they observed when the Endeavour crew came aboard Friday.

Jett requested permission to depart Alpha, which Shepherd granted. As Jett saluted and disappeared into a tunnel leading to the shuttle, Shepherd rang a ship’s bell and called out: “Endeavour departing.”

Before the shuttle astronauts left, Shepherd thanked them “for bringing us great new capability on board station Alpha.”

“Job well done,” he said.

Endeavour’s astronauts spent almost all of last week installing new electricity-generating solar wings on the international space station and working on wing repairs.

The right wing ended up too slack after it jerked open, and two spacewalking astronauts had to go out and tighten two loose tension cables.

Their handiwork left Alpha with two perfectly taut solar wings, spanning 240 feet from tip to tip and 38 feet wide.

The wings already were providing more than 40 kilowatts of badly needed electricity for the station.

Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev could not enter the station’s spacious Unity module until Endeavour delivered the solar wings, one month into their four-month stay. The module had been closed because there wasn’t enough power to heat it.

There also wasn’t enough power to run all the station equipment all the time.

Endeavour’s astronauts beamed down pictures of Alpha and its giant, gleaming, gold-colored solar wings as the shuttle made a wide lap around the station.

Before the shuttle zoomed away for good, Jett played a recording of a rousing Sousa march over the ship-to-ship radio link.

“Best of luck, Shep, Yuri and Sergei,” Jett said.

Between the power constraints and the mad rush to prepare for Endeavour’s arrival, Shepherd said the crew’s first five weeks aboard the space station were “challenging.”

He and his crew mates worked long hours and had hardly any free time.

“It’s easy to second-guess and say, ‘Well, things could have gone better,’ ” Shepherd said Friday evening. “But I think the progress has been really outstanding, and I’m hoping it’s going to get a lot better.”

Shepherd and his crew are supposed to return to Earth in late February. Endeavour is due back Monday.