The space shuttle Discovery pushed off from the International Space Station today and, after flying around the station to admire its crew's handiwork, set course for Earth. The crew will perform a routine inspection of the Discovery’s underbelly tomorrow—a measure enacted after 2003’s Columbia disaster—and should land in Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, Space.com reports.
Staying behind is Dan Tani, who tearfully told the Discovery crew he missed them already. Tani and the rest of the station’s crew will begin a series of spacewalks Friday to prepare for the next shuttle mission in December. The team must move the Harmony module and address the mysterious metal shavings Tani discovered on a solar rotary joint. (More International Space Station stories.)