The European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory has been moved to the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the expected 6 December launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on its STS-122 mission to the International Space Station.
STS-122 could be Atlantis's penultimate mission, if the US space agency decides to retire the orbiter after the STS-125 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission scheduled for August 2008.
Inside its payload canister, Columbus was transported to launch pad 39A on 7 November. There it was moved from the canister into the pad's changeout room and was expected to be loaded into Atlantis's payload bay on 11 November, following the orbiter's planned roll-out from the vehicle assembly building on 10 November.
The pressurised laboratory module weighs 12,800kg (28,100lb), is 6.87m (22.5ft) long with an internal volume of 75m³(2,600ft³) and can hold 9t of payload.
The STS-122 crew includes ESA astronauts Leopold Eyharts of France and Hans Schlegel of Germany. French space agency CNES says: "Eyharts will remain on the ISS for nearly three months as a member of the Expedition 16 crew to oversee the in-orbit commissioning of Columbus and its experimental facilities."
By the third quarter of 2009 the ISS crew will be expanded from three to six. As well as the normal April launch of a three-person crew to the ISS, a second Soyuz spacecraft will be launched from Russia in May, June or July of 2009 to send the other half of the expedition.
Future launches will see the six crew sent in two staggered flights of three personnel with 30- to 90-day periods between each one.
Under the existing framework agreement the six crew will consist of three Russian cosmonauts, two NASA astronauts and a final crew member from either Canada, ESA or Japan.
ESA will have a crew member on board ISS for six months every 24 months and negotiations for an increase in ESA occupation are under way.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
