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25-03-09 Shuttle astronauts leave station after upgrades

The shuttle Discovery astronauts left the International Space Station on Wednesday,floating back inside their ship after an eight-day visit to prepare the orbiting outpost for an additional three residents.Shuttle commander Lee Archambault and pilot Tony Antonelli planned to fire Discovery's steering jets shortly before 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) to ease the 100-ton spaceship out of its docking port.Landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for Saturday."This is the toughest part of the mission,at least for me," station commander Mike Fincke told the Discovery crew as they gathered to say good-bye."It was really great having you up here." "You've made the space station much better than it was before," said Fincke,who will head back to Earth on April 7,along with flight engineer Yury Lonchakov,to complete a six-month stay