Live in Orbit: Endeavour Departure Nears

Shuttle Endeavour's crew is awake and preparing to depart the International Space Station this morning.

After saying goodbye to the station's three residents and closing hatches between the two vehicles on Thanksgiving evening, Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the station at 9:47 a.m.

"It's a good day for undock and flyaround," said pilot Eric Boe, after who will maneuver the shuttle away from the station and fly a loop around it.

The shuttle will take pictures and video of the station so NASA can assess its exterior condition.

You can watch Endeavour's departure live here at The Flame Trench. Just click on the NASA TV image on the right side of the page to launch a viewer.

After the flyaround, Endeavour will move roughly 50 miles from the station to perform final inspections of its heat shields using laser sensors mounted on the orbiter's robotic arm and boom extension.

Endeavour docked with the station on Nov. 16, two days after launching from Kennedy Space Center. The seven-person crew unloaded more than 14,000 of equipment from the Leonardo cargo module and more from the shuttle's mid-deck.

During four spacewalks, three spacewalkers performed repairs to joints that rotate the station's massive solar wings.

The shuttle's undocking begins a two-day journey home to a planned landing at KSC at 1:19 p.m. Sunday.

Boe's family selected the wake-up song for the Endeavour crew's last morning docked at the station, Spacehog's "In the meantime." You can check out the lyrics here.

Here's a rundown of the NASA TV schedule for the remainder of the mission.