This story
was updated at 7:32 p.m. EST.
HOUSTON —
Two spacewalking astronauts helped deliver a new European module to the
International Space Station (ISS) Monday to boost the orbiting laboratory's
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.
"Houston,
Munich, the European Columbus laboratory module is now a part of the ISS," said
French
astronaut Leopold Eyharts, of the ESA, from the station as the new lab arrived
at 4:44 p.m. EST (2144 GMT).
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.
Mission
managers replaced Schlegel with Love on Saturday due to an undisclosed medical
issue. Schlegel assisted Atlantis pilot Alan Poindexter to choreograph today's
spacewalk from inside the shuttle and is expected to take part in the mission's
second spacewalk on Wednesday.
"I think
the crew really stepped up to the plate," said Anna Jarvis, NASA's lead
spacewalk officer for the mission.
Monday's
spacewalk, the first of three planned for Atlantis'
planned 12-day mission, began at 9:13 a.m. EST (1413 GMT) and ran seven
hours, 58 minutes in duration. It marked the first spacewalk for Love and the
third for Walheim.
"Welcome to
spacewalking, buddy," Walheim told Love.
"It's
awesome," Love said.
Columbus
finds a new home
Astronauts
plan to open the ESA's Columbus lab on Tuesday to christen the 27-foot
(7-meter) laboratory and outfit it for orbital flight. The new module is about
14.7-feet (4.5-meters) wide and adds an extra 2,648 cubic feet (75 cubic
meters) of breathing room aboard the ISS.
"There is a
sight that everybody in Europe has been looking forward to for a very, very
long time," said Alan Thirkettle, ISS program manager for the ESA, after
Columbus' installation. "She looks beautiful."
Columbus is
built to hold a total of 16 equipment racks, 10 of which will be devoted to
scientific research. A new ESA control center, based in Oberpfaffenhofen,
Germany just outside of Munich, will oversee the module's daily operations.
"We are
opening a new chapter for ESA starting with the utilization of Columbus," said
ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain when the module
launched last week, adding that European researchers and engineers have
spent two decades working for today's delivery. "Now they will be able to reap
the benefits."
In addition
to the science racks launched with the module, Walheim and Love will add two
exterior experiments to study the sun and monitor the space environment during
a planned Friday excursion.
ESA
officials named Columbus after Christopher Columbus with the hope of launching
it into orbit in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of the explorer's historic
1492 voyage to the New World. But delays and redesigns to the module, the ISS
project overall and NASA's recovery from two shuttle disasters pushed the new
lab's launch to 2008.
"Columbus
is officially docked to the space station, joining the world's voyage of
exploration of the new New World," NASA commentator Pat Ryan said.
Eyharts
will spend the next month commissioning Columbus as a member of the station's
Expedition 16 crew. He helped STS-122 mission specialists Leland Melvin and Dan
Tani attach the new lab to the space station using the outpost's Canadarm2
robotic arm.
"Wow, look
at Columbus coming in!" Walheim exclaimed to station commander Peggy Whitson
and other astronauts aboard the ISS and Atlantis. "Give Peggy a new room for
her house."
Kirk
Shireman, NASA's deputy station program chief, said mission managers are
debating whether to add an extra day to Atlantis' already extended STS-122 flight
to allow extra time to commission the Columbus lab.
Space
station support
During
their spacewalk, Walheim and Love attached a grapple fixture to Columbus to
provide a handle for the station's robotic arm. They also loosened bolts and
disconnected cables on a spent nitrogen tank serving the station's cooling
system, priming it for replacement during a Wednesday spacewalk.
Love also
spotted what appeared to be a ding, possibly caused by orbital debris or a
micrometeorite, on a handrail near the station's Quest airlock.
"Looks to me
like a little impact crater," said Love, adding that the blemish appeared to be
about 2 millimeters in size. "It is right where everybody grabs on the
handrail."
Mission
Control asked the spacewalkers to photograph the ding as part of an ongoing
survey of areas that may pose a tear hazard to an astronaut's spacesuit gloves.
Monday's
spacewalk marked the 102nd dedicated to space station construction, leaving the
orbital laboratory about 57 percent complete, mission managers said. By the
excursion's close, Walheim racked up 22 hours and 13 minutes of spacewalking
time while Love concluded with 7 hours and 58 minutes.
At one
point, the astronauts caught sight of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape
Canaveral, Fla., while working in orbit.
"What an
awesome pass over Florida," said Love, adding that he could see NASA's shuttle
landing strip from space. "Oh, wow. Fabulous!"
NASA is
broadcasting Atlantis' STS-122 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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