Atlantis recedes from the space station after undocking Spacewalk Shuttle docks Shuttle's back-flip Shuttle launch

The orbiter detached from the platform at 0924 GMT, ending eight days of operations at the ISS.

The crew have performed a final check on the ship's heat-shield system ahead of Wednesday's scheduled landing.

The Atlantis astronauts completed all their objectives on the flight, the most important of which was to deliver and install the Columbus science lab.

The module is Europe's major contribution to the science endeavours on the orbiting platform, and the first part of the ISS it will control, through a ground station in Oberpfaffenhofen in southern Germany.

The 1.3bn-euro ($1.8bn; �0.9bn) lab will undertake an extensive programme of research in the weightless conditions experienced some 340km above the planet.

COLUMBUS FACTS Total length - 6.8m Diameter - 4.5m Volume - 75 cu m Launch mass - 12.8t Operation - 3 crew Cabin temp - 16-27C Total power - 20kW Columbus: Sky-high science A key moment for Europe Building Columbus Installing Columbus A Columbus tour

The French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who launched on Atlantis, is staying on the ISS to help commission Columbus.

He will begin the gradual process in the coming days and weeks of activating the onboard experiments in the fields of life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and other disciplines.

Eyharts' place on the shuttle for the trip home has been taken by US astronaut Daniel Tani, who has been a resident on the platform since October.

In addition to fitting Columbus, the Atlantis crew replaced an expended nitrogen tank on the station and retrieved a failed control-moment gyroscope for return to Earth.

Before undocking, the shuttle boosted the altitude of the ISS by a couple of kilometres - the first reboost of the station using shuttle thrusters since 2002.

Atlantis is currently targeting a 0907 EST (1407 GMT) landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The US space agency (Nasa) is already looking ahead to the next shuttle mission. The Endeavour orbiter began its slow roll out to the launch pad at Kennedy on Sunday in preparation for an 11 March liftoff.

ATV - SPACE CARGO TRUCK Mission Guide: Jules Verne Logistics ship will resupply the ISS with 4,860kg of cargo Deliveries to include science equipment, food and clothing Large tanks will transport vital air, water and fuel supplies ATV project's estimated cost is about 1.3bn euros (�0.9bn) At least four craft will follow the maiden ATV - Jules Verne Named after the author who wrote about fantastic journeys ATV given launch date ATV flight animation

Eleven further shuttle flights are required to complete ISS construction. Nasa hopes to execute four from that manifest before the end of the 2008 (in addition to a shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope).

Endeavour's flight in March will be taking up the first part of a Japanese research lab, and a Canadian robot called Dextre, which will take over a lot of the exterior work on the platform currently done by spacewalking astronauts.

Just prior to Endeavour's launch, the European Space Agency (Esa) will loft its new space station logistics ship, known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).

Dubbed "Jules Verne" for its maiden voyage, the ATV is entering final launch preparations at the European Kourou spaceport in French Guiana and is expected to leave Earth on 8 March.

Although it will go up before Endeavour, agency officials say the ATV will wait until the shuttle's mission is complete before approaching the platform for a docking.

The ATV will haul just under five tonnes of cargo (food, water, fuel and experimental equipment) to the ISS.