Washington - The shuttle Atlantis undocked yesterday from the International Space Station and headed back to Earth after successfully completing the assembly of a US built space laboratory, NASA said.
With the addition of the Destiny lab, the space station is now the largest man-made object in space, orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 400 km. It weights 112 tonnes. The $1.4 billion laboratory will be the station's main US research facility. The shuttle, docked to the station for nearly a week, is due to return to Earth tomorrow.