Shuttle astronauts bid farewell to station and its residents after solving problem of solar array

Monday, December 18th 2006, 8:23 am

By: News On 6

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) With floating hugs all around, space shuttle Discovery's crew bid farewell to the international space station and its residents Tuesday after an eight-day visit.

"It's always a goal to try and leave some place in a better shape than it was when you came, and I think we've accomplished that," said Discovery commander Mark Polanksy, whose crew successfully rewired the orbiting space lab.

The hatch between the two spacecraft was closed in the afternoon. Discovery planned to undock later in the day for the long journey home.

U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, who arrived aboard Discovery for a six-month stay on the space station, playfully nudged German astronaut Thomas Reiter into the shuttle -- his ride home after his long stay aboard the space station -- with her foot.

American space station crewman Michael Lopez-Alegria saluted the departing Reiter for his "competence, conscientiousness and consistency" and pronounced him a "model astronaut."

"By the authority vested in me, which I just invented, we would like to make you an honorary member of the NASA astronaut corps," Lopez-Alegria said, pinning wings onto Reiter's polo shirt.

Discovery's astronauts, who are due to return to Earth on Friday, switched the space station from a temporary power source to a permanent one, managed four spacewalks, and on Monday completed the most difficult task of their mission: getting a stubborn, accordion-like solar panel array folded up.

The extra, 6 1/2-hour spacewalk -- completed with none of the ground training the crew usually has for spacewalks -- delayed Discovery's undocking by a day and pushed back the shuttle's return to Earth. Because of supply limits, Discovery needs to be on the ground by Saturday.

U.S. astronaut Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang of the European Space Agency worked for more than five hours to get the last section of a 115-foot-long solar array folded up into a box.

"You guys are superheroes!" Mission Control said.