Houston - The space shuttle, Atlantis, separated from the Mir space station yesterday following a docking that lasted more than six days, NASA said. The manoeuvre was delayed 90 minutes at the request of the Russians to allow the crew on Mir time to test a cable forming part of the craft's orientation system, NASA mission control said.
Russian flight controllers called for the delay to complete testing of a data relay box that interfaces with the station's newly installed motion control computer. The relay box also provides data to the station's automatic docking system, which will be needed on Tuesday for the arrival of an unmanned cargo ship.