As the shuttle age draws to a close after 37 dramatic rendezvous, their crews held a moving ceremony, exchanging embraces and kisses before shutting the hatches separating them for a final time at 1428 GMT.

Astronauts then placed an American flag seal over the passageway separating the shuttle and the space station, in a poignant gesture to symbolize the end of one era of US spaceflight and the dawn of a new one.

"When this flag returns again someday to Earth by astronauts that came up on an American spacecraft, its journey will not end there," said shuttle commander Chris Ferguson. "Its journey will continue, it will leave low-Earth orbit once again, perhaps to a lunar destination -- perhaps to Mars. It is our honor to have brought this flag here."

"We're closing a chapter in the history of our nation," added astronaut Ronald Garan, a flight engineer stationed on the ISS. "In the future when another spacecraft docks to that hatch... we are going to be opening a new era and raising the flag on a new era of exploration," Garan said, as Atlantis wrapped up its near eight-day visit.

Atlantis lifted off July 8 on the final flight of the shuttle program, STS-135, with a four-member crew, lugging the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module containing supplies and spare parts for the space station. The Atlantis crew was to spend the remainder of the day preparing for Tuesday's undocking. The shuttle was to fly home Thursday ahead of its retirement, which marks the end of the 30-year US space shuttle program.

AFP