Endeavour Astronauts rest before trip back home

The astronauts on the shuttle Endeavour took some rest before their journey back home. This mission has been very busy with the astronauts carrying out five spacewalks.

The shuttle is scheduled to undock from the station at 2356 GMT on Monday. They have a two-day journey before landing back on earth on Wednesday evening at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle had left the Space Center on March 11.

Crew members started preparations for the journey as they transferred supplies and equipment between the station to the shuttle and completed other housekeeping tasks.

The team members also did some chatting with their families through an Internet phone line.

This crew had many objectives, out of which one was to assemble Canadian-built robotic maintenance man, Dextre. Its assembly was successfully completed by the third spacewalk.

The fourth spacewalk was focused on carrying out some tests to check a method for repairing damaged shuttle thermal tiles.

In the fifth walk, an extension sensor-studded boom was used to scan Endeavour's heat shield to ensure it is safe for next week's re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere.

It is a routine process followed by every shuttle crew that's flown since the Columbia disaster. This shield protects the ship from the large amount of heat, which is produced when the shuttle enters the earth atmosphere and has the potential of damaging it.

Later, the boom was docked to the station for use by the nest shuttle Discovery as it won’t be having enough space for it. Discovery, scheduled to fly in May this year, is planned to carry the enormous Japenese lab Kibo.

During their stay at the station, the seven shuttle astronauts and the three-member station crew attached the first piece of a Japanese laboratory to the station.

The three-piece lab, called Kibo or "hope," is Japan's main contribution to the station and will be its largest science facility when completed next year.

"At this moment, the people in Japan are very excited, about how module was attached to the space station," said Japanese astronaut Takao Doi. "It was a great moment and it's going to open up a new era for Japan in the space program."

The shuttle will bring back French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who arrived at the space station in early February. Astronaut Garrett Reisman, who flew in this shuttle, will remain there until June.