Astronauts wrap up work aboard space station

HOUSTON -- The 10 astronauts aboard the linked space shuttle and space station wrapped up their joint work Sunday and got ready to say goodbye.

With the hatches between the two spacecraft scheduled to be sealed around midday, the crew rushed to finish activating science racks inside the new Columbus module and packing the shuttle for the ride home to Earth.

Atlantis plans to undock today after a nine-day visit to the international space station. Flight director Bob Dempsey said he could not be more pleased with Atlantis' visit. The two crews installed the new European lab, Columbus, and conducted three spacewalks to hook it up and do other space station chores.

"The mission has gone, by many measures of success, extremely smoothly," he said.