Having
sailed in space for the past two weeks to install the European Space Agency's
(ESA) Columbus science lab on the International Space Station, the crew of
space shuttle Atlantis came home to Houston on Thursday. Despite the overcast
skies, a crowd of their mission training and team members, friends and, perhaps
most importantly to them, their families, gathered to greet the seven
astronauts for a homecoming celebration.
"What
a great scene to see all of you who came out in less than desirable
weather," said STS-122
mission pilot Alan Poindexter of the rain falling just outside the hangar
at Ellington Field.
"We
really appreciate you coming out on maybe not the prettiest day of the
winter," added commander Stephen Frick. "It just makes us feel good
to know that people are watching us and thinking about us and happy that we're
home, and we are happy to be home."
"Let
me tell you, it's been a long time training and even though the mission goes by
in a blur, it's a long and it's a busy mission. It's a great relief to have it
complete and successful, and have the Columbus module up there and working on
the space station and for all of us to be back home safe," said Frick.
An
international success
The nearly
13-day flight highlighted the multi-nation effort that has resulted in the
assembly of the space station. In addition to the
European lab, which was joined with U.S. and Russian components already on
orbit, the six-person crew used Canadian-built robotic arms to move Columbus from the shuttle's payload bay to its berth on the outpost.
"Pulling
the hand controllers, it was so smooth. I couldn't believe how smooth it
was," described mission specialist Leland Melvin, who operated the
station's "big arm".
Three
spacewalks were also needed to ready the lab, which was named after the 15th
century Genoan explorer, to outfit it with exterior-mounted science
experiments, and to replace a nitrogen tank used for cooling the ISS.
"It
was very challenging and we had three challenging spacewalks but fortunately we
had the best team in the business to get us ready for it and to execute
it," said Rex Walheim, who performed all three of the
excursions.
Walheim was
joined by first-time flyer Stan Love on two of the spacewalks and ESA astronaut
Hans Schlegel for the other, though that order was originally planned to be
flipped. A "crew medical issue" had Love take Schlegel's place on the
mission's first spacewalk.
"He
was faced with having to jump into an EVA in the last minute that he had seen
on the ground, but hadn't really trained on, and just did a wonderful job with
Rex to get EVA 1 complete," Frick commented about Love's work.
"He
took my first EVA and fulfilled it as I couldn't have done it better,"
said Schlegel, who recovered in time to make the flight's second spacewalk as
he was scheduled to do. "Nobody has been more glad and more relieved that
everything worked so flawlessly and performed so nicely."
Though the
nature of Schlegel's illness wasn't disclosed, Love said that the tables could
have easily been turned.
"I can
only say that it could have just as easily been you that had to take my place
and I am sure you would have done it better than I," he replied to
Schlegel's comments.
Despite his
slight setback, Schlegel was proud of his and his crewmates success on the mission.
"Of
course, me as the European, as a German, and here I speak for Leopold
[Eyharts] as well, who was part of our ascent team as a French-European, it
was a tremendous feeling of pride," he said of launching Columbus,
Europe's first long duration crewed space platform. "We installed the
external payloads, we outfitted it, we activated it, we worked on the
experiments and more over, we even did some maintenance repair work on
station," said Schlegel.
"It is
truly an effort that goes beyond country boundaries. It just spans over the
whole world of which we travel around in 90 minutes. That is really something
that builds up in your heart, in your stomach, wherever you're feeling is at
home."
Continue
reading about the sacrifices, support, and life in space and back on Earth at collectSPACE.com.
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