After a flawless dock on February 9th, the Shuttle Atlantis crew installed the European-made, 10-ton Columbus laboratory. Columbus is the first ISS addition not made in the United States or Russia. The lab cost $2 billion, paid mostly by Germany, Italy and France - all members of the European Space Agency (ESA).
On February 11, 2008 astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love installed Columbus during the first spacewalk of the STS-122 mission. At the end of the working day on February 14th, all of Columbus’ core systems were successfully activated.
This past Friday, astronauts successfully completed a spacewalk to install the Columbus external experiment facilities, SOLAR and the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF). Of particular interest to astronomers, SOLAR contains three instruments for Sun observation that allow measurements through the whole electromagnetic spectrum. The observatory features a movable frame to keep the instruments pointed at the Sun for 15 minutes at a time while the ISS rapidly orbits our planet. EuTEF houses nine different experiments requiring exposure to the space environment – including a micrometeoroid/orbital debris detector & Earth viewing camera.
Both the ISS & Atlantis crews spent Saturday transferring supplies and equipment to the new orbiting lab. The shuttle is scheduled to leave the space station on Monday at 4:26 AM EST and is due to return to Earth on Wednesday. Tune in to Slooh Radio for a mission wrap-up and the Lunar Eclipse!
