U.S. space shuttle Endeavour on Monday undocked from the international space station and headed for home, ending an "extraordinary mission" marked by a record five successful spacewalks, media reported.
The shuttle has been at the station 12 days, the longest mission ever of its kind.
During their stay, the seven shuttle astronauts, working with the three-member station crew, attached the first piece of a Japanese laboratory to the station and assembled a Canadian maintenance robot known as Dextre.
"In my mind, in my view, it's been an extraordinary mission," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team. "It's just been a textbook mission up and down the line in every way that I look at it."
Garrett Reisman flew up aboard Endeavour to replace French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who was going home on the shuttle.
Endeavour, Eyharts and six others are due back on Earth on Wednesday evening.
NASA wants to complete construction of the ISS by 2010, when its three-shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired.
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
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