HOUSTON - Astronauts will open the
International Space Station's (ISS) newest laboratory for business Tuesday when
they christen the European-built Columbus module.
Spacewalkers helped attach the
10-ton research laboratory for the European Space Agency (ESA) Monday, adding
a shiny new room to the ISS.
"We're looking out our aft, upper
starboard window and about five feet away is Columbus," Atlantis shuttle
commander Stephen Frick radioed to Mission Control after the module's
installation. "We're looking forward to getting in tomorrow."
French
astronaut Leopold Eyharts, a newly arrived station crewmember representing
the ESA, will officially open Columbus later today when he and his crewmates
open the hatch separating it from the rest of the station. The hatch opening is
scheduled to begin at 8:50 a.m. EST (1350 GMT), with a full ingress to follow
at about 2:55 p.m. EST (1955 GMT).
"I think there will be some
emotion," Eyharts told reporters before launch. "Even though that's just a
partial ingress and it will not be fully activated."
Overnight Monday, the 23-foot
(7-meter) long Columbus siphoned power from the ISS electrical grid via a feed
running through the station's robotic arm, mission managers said. But later
today, shuttle and ISS Expedition 16 astronauts will activate the 14.5-foot
(4.5-meter) wide module's permanent power and cooling systems.
"Tomorrow morning, we get the
electricians and the plumbers in to hook us up," Alan Thirkettle, station
program manager for the ESA, told reporters late Monday. "Leo will get himself
nicely dressed up in his goggles and his mask and everything."
Eyharts and Columbus' other first
occupants will have to wear 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.
The new lab's ESA control center
near Munich, Germany is now online, with flight controllers working in three
shifts to watch over Columbus around the clock alongside other centers
governing the space station's U.S. and Russian segments, Thirkettle added.
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 10-astronaut crew of
Atlantis and the ISS will begin outfitting the interior of Columbus over the
next several days, and add external experiments to the module during a
spacewalk set for Friday.
Mission Control roused the crew
early Tuesday with the song "A Dream Come True" by Jim Brinkman, a tune
selected for Atlantis' lead spacewalker Rex Walheim by his wife Margie and
family.
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. The extra time would allow the crew to draw on
the talents of ESA astronaut Hans Schlegel, a shuttle mission specialist, who
is expected to return to spacewalking duty on Wednesday after sitting out
Monday's excursion due
to an undisclosed illness.
"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.
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.
Atlantis' seven-astronaut crew is
currently scheduled to return to Earth on Feb. 19.
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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