A team of
astronauts on Earth and in orbit are poised for a December spaceflight to haul
a new European laboratory at the International Space Station (ISS).
The seven astronauts
of NASA's shuttle Atlantis are training to launch toward the ISS with the
European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus laboratory as the station's Expedition
16 crew gears up for two planned spacewalks this week to ready the outpost for
the new addition.
"We're
really excited about this mission," shuttle commander Stephen Frick told
reporters Monday on Atlantis's Pad 39A launch site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Frick and
his STS-122 crew are due to launch spaceward on Dec. 6 on an 11-day
mission to deliver Columbus to the ISS. They will climb into the 100-ton
Atlantis orbiter on Tuesday for a dress rehearsal of their launch day
activities.
"So
far, we're looking right on schedule for Dec. 6," Frick said. "The
real challenge is on the station side. They've just had a ton of work to get
done since [the last flight]."
Commanded
by NASA
astronaut Peggy Whitson, the space station's three-person Expedition
16 crew is currently in the midst of a packed month of spacewalks, robotics and
module outfitting to ensure the orbital laboratory's new
Harmony connecting module is ready for Atlantis's arrival next
month. The station crew moved Harmony to the front of the outpost's U.S.
Destiny module last week.
Whitson and
flight engineer Dan Tani are now set to stage a pair of spacewalks, on Tuesday
and Saturday, respectively, to fold the Harmony node into the station's power
and cooling systems. The spacewalks must go smoothly to allow December's
shuttle mission to launch, NASA has said.
"These
[spacewalks], I expect, will be tough," Tani told Chicago's WBBM Radio
in a Monday interview broadcast on NASA TV. "Plus, we know that we are in
the critical path to getting the node fully activated."
Tani and
Whitson equipped Harmony with a shuttle docking port last week before moving it
to the front of Destiny using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. The new connecting
node will serve as the hub for the ESA's Columbus module and Japan's Kibo
laboratory.
"We're
looking forward to the work ahead," Whitson said. "We know it's going
to be challenging, but we're prepared."
NASA
will broadcast the Expedition 16 crew's second spacewalk outside the ISS live
on NASA TV on Nov. 20 beginning at 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT). Click here for SPACE.com's ISS mission updates
and NASA TV feed.
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