Washington, July 28 (DPA) The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour bid farewell to their colleagues on the International Space Station Tuesday and were preparing to head back to Earth.

The Endeavour brought an external platform to the station that was installed on the Japanese Kibo laboratory during the first of the mission's five spacewalks. The porch will expose experiments to the extremities of space.

The space shuttle was to undock at 1726 GMT, carrying its seven-member crew. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata is to return to Earth aboard Endeavour after spending four months as a long-term ISS crew member. US astronaut Tim Kopra is replacing Wakata on the six-member ISS permanent crew.

Endeavour is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida Friday.