Wednesday, September 09, 2009 WASHINGTON: The space shuttle Discovery dated at: 0356 PST,undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday and began its journey back to Earth after a successful mission.Discovery undocked from the ISS at 1926 GMT and circled the space station to survey and photograph its exterior -- customary practice to end such missions -- before returning to Earth for a scheduled Thursday landing in Florida.Before their second and final burn away from the station, the crew used a robotic arm and high-definition cameras to ensure the shuttle's heat shield had not been compromised by orbiting debris and small meteorites.The shield must be intact to prevent Discovery from disintegrating as it enters the Earth's atmosphere at high speed.During their eight days aboard the ISS, the Discovery crew has transferred 6.9 tonnes of equipment, including new sleeping quarters, a treadmill, and a refrigerator that will store materials for experiments.They also delivered and installed a new 800 kilogram external tank containing liquid ammonia, which is used to cool the station's navigation system.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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