COLUMBUS LABORATORY ATTACHED TO ISS

Two Astronauts have attached a European built Module to The International Space Station (ISS). The Laboratory named Columbus was attached to the station on Monday 11th February 2008.
The Laboratory will boost the Stations research facilities.

Atlantis shuttle astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love spent almost eight hours working to help attach the European Space Agency's (ESA) 1.4 billion euro ($2 billion) Columbus laboratory to the ISS and add a new room to the high-flying outpost.

With the exception of stubborn power cables, which waylaid the spacewalkers for an hour, the orbital work appeared to go smoothly despite a last-minute astronaut switch that put Love in a slot originally reserved for German astronaut Hans Schlegel, of the ESA.

On Tuesday the Laboratory was opened. Eyharts, Schlegel and station commander Peggy Whitson were among the first to enter the still-darkened Columbus to take air samples, scan for debris. Flight controllers at the module's new ESA Mission Control center outside Munich, Germany switched on the lights later once power cables were attached.

The 23-foot (7-meter) long Columbus initially drew power from a feed running through the station's robotic arm until power, data and cooling lines were be attached, mission managers said. The 14.7-foot (4.5-meter) wide module did encounter a pair of cooling system glitches, one on the station side and another inside Columbus itself, though neither poses a threat to the lab's full operations, they added.

Eyharts and Columbus' other first occupants wore protective masks and goggles as a precaution against any debris that may have stowed away aboard the module during its launch into space. Once air circulates through the module, the research lab will be habitable without protective gear, mission managers said.

Columbus is the first new laboratory to arrive at the ISS since NASA's Destiny module in 2001. Japan's multi-module Kibo laboratory is also due to launch toward the station later this spring during NASA's next two shuttle flights.

The joint station and shuttle crew will continue outfitting the interior of Columbus over the next several days, and add external experiments to the module during a spacewalk set for Friday.

Mission managers, meanwhile, are discussing whether to extend the shuttle crew's already extended 12-day spaceflight by an extra day to squeeze one more day of Columbus outfitting into their schedule.

"If you extend the mission one extra day, you get to keep Hans onboard and he is a specialist in Columbus commissioning," said Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy ISS program manager, of Schlegel.

But adding one more day to Atlantis' flight would require the shuttle to use oxygen supplies for its fuel cells that could be used to replenish high-pressure tanks used for ISS spacewalks, Shireman added. "That's the trade that we're working together," he said.

Engineers have cleared a small torn thermal insulation blanket on Atlantis' starboard aft engine pod of any concerns for landing. NASA has kept a close watch on shuttle heat shield health since the 2003 Columbia tragedy. "That's great news," Atlantis commander Stephen Frick said as Mission Control radioed up the good news. "It's a relief knowing we don't have to go back there and mess with it."

Atlantis' seven-astronaut crew is currently scheduled to return to Earth on Feb. 19.

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