Discovery, the world’s most traveled spaceship, left the International Space Station on Monday for the last time, getting a dramatic send-off by the dozen orbiting astronauts as well as “Star Trek’s” original Capt. Kirk.
Station skipper Scott Kelly rang his ship’s bell in true naval tradition, as the shuttle backed away on the final leg of its final journey.
“Discovery departing,” he called out.
Discovery is due back on Earth on Wednesday. It’s being retired after touchdown and sent to the Smithsonian Institution for display. NASA’s two other shuttles will join Discovery in retirement, following their upcoming missions.
Discovery’s astronauts got a special greeting in advance of their space station departure.
Actor William Shatner, who played Capt. James Kirk on the original “Star Trek” TV series, paid tribute to Discovery’s voyages over the decades.
“Space, the final frontier,” Shatner said in a prerecorded message. “These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery. Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together on the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before.”
Shatner’s words were followed by Monday morning’s wake-up music, “Theme from Star Trek.” It was the runner-up in a pick-the-wake-up-music contest sponsored by NASA. The No. 1 vote-getter will be beamed up Tuesday.
Discovery will have racked up nearly 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) by trip’s end, accumulated over 39 missions and nearly 27 years, and spent 365 days total in space. It flew to the space station 13 times.
Immediately after undocking high above the Pacific, Discovery performed a victory lap around the orbiting outpost, where it spent the past nine days. The two crews beamed down pictures of each other’s vessel, with the blue cloud-specked planet 220 miles (355 kilometers) below as the backdrop.
Close-up shots showed most, if not all, of…