The space shuttle Endeavour is reported to have sailed away from the International Space Station Friday, delivering a new connecting hub and observation deck that virtually completed the U. S. segment of the lab complex after more than 11 years of construction.

It is revealed that Endeavour pulled directly away from the station's forward docking port at 7:54 p. m. EST after nine days of joint activity.

Before NASA pulls its three-ship fleet later this year, four more shuttle missions are in the cue stocked at the station and deliver science experiments. The station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations, has been under development
220 miles above Earth since 1998.

Virts started a 360-degree photo-documentation fly-around at a distance of nearly 400 feet directly in front of the station, looping up above the complex.

Zamka, Virts, Kathryn Hire, flight engineer Stephen Robinson, and spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick seeks to spend the rest of their "day" packing and inspecting the shuttle's reinforced carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry.

Endeavour along with its six-member crew, including commander George Zamka and flight engineer Stephen Robinson, are reported due back at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:16 p. m. EST on Sunday (0316 GMT on Monday).