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European Space Laboratory to Get First Experiments

Reuters
 Feb 14, 2008

In the grasp of the station's robotic Canadarm2, the Columbus laboratory is moved from its stowage position in space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay to the starboard side of the Harmony module of the International Space Station. (NASA)
In the grasp of the station's robotic Canadarm2, the Columbus laboratory is moved from its stowage position in space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay to the starboard side of the Harmony module of the International Space Station. (NASA)


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HOUSTON—Astronauts and ground control teams hustled to get Europe's newly delivered space laboratory prepared for science experiments Thursday as NASA ironed out plans for a final spacewalk by the shuttle Atlantis crew.

The European Space Agency's $1.9 billion Columbus module was ferried into orbit aboard the shuttle last week and installed during the first of three spacewalks planned during Atlantis' nine-day visit to the International Space Station.

"I cannot yet believe Columbus is in orbit," the European Space Agency director general, Jean Jacques Dordain, told the astronauts.

During the call, German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated German astronaut Hans Schlegel, a member of the shuttle Atlantis crew, on his first spacewalk on Wednesday.

"It was the first time I saw the Earth from outside the vehicle. The colors are very vivid," said Schlegel, who was pulled from an earlier spacewalk due to an undisclosed medical condition.

"It is very important that humankind continues research in space and has an opportunity to go to space and see the beautiful Earth," he said.

Shuttle and station crew members speak to German Chancellor Angela Merkel from inside the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory. (NASA TV)

During the final spacewalk of the mission, scheduled for Friday, astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love will attach a solar telescope and a materials science experiment to the outside of the new European laboratory.

They also plan to inspect a corroded joint that has prompted NASA to lock one of the station's two solar power wings into place and check whether a small hole in a handrail is what had ripped astronauts' gloves during spacewalks.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, meanwhile, was preparing for the next shuttle launch on March 11 in which Shuttle Endeavour will carry the first part of Japan's Kibo laboratory complex into orbit. The shuttle is scheduled to be rolled out to the launch pad on Monday.

NASA wants to carry out nine more shuttle missions to complete construction of the $100 billion space station and two resupply flights before the fleet is retired in 2010. The agency also plans a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope in September.



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