Columbus delivery gives Europe a place in space

|PIC1|Europe finally got a place of its own in space when astronauts attached the European laboratory Columbus to the International Space Station on Monday.

Using a robot arm, they lifted the gleaming 10-tonne cylinder from space shuttle Atlantis and hooked it to the station to complete Columbus' journey and end a long wait for European space officials.

"Houston, Munich, the European Columbus laboratory module is now part of the ISS," French astronaut Leopold Eyharts radioed to Earth.

Columbus has been in the works for two decades and was supposed to have been delivered in 2002. But it was delayed by events including the destruction of shuttle Columbia in 2003, which grounded the space shuttle fleet for 2-1/2 years.

"Today has been a truly momentous step and a historic day for Europe," European Space Agency space station manager Alan Thirkettle said in a briefing at NASA's Johnson Space Centre.

"You might imagine we're rather happy and overjoyed," he said. "There were whoops and cheers."

The $1.9 billion (973 million pound) Columbus lab, 23 feet long and nearly 15 feet in diameter, is the heart of a $5 billion investment in the space station program by 10 European countries. It is lined with refrigerator-sized racks to be used for wide-ranging space research.

Even at the end, nothing came easily for Columbus, which was launched aboard Atlantis on Thursday.

DELAYED SPACEWALK

NASA had to postpone installation for a day when German astronaut Hans Schlegel, scheduled to take part in an accompanying spacewalk, fell ill with a still-undisclosed ailment.

Space rookie Stan Love filled in and, working with lead spacewalker Rex Walheim, prepared Columbus for its move from the shuttle. Love's lack of training and a struggle to attach a clasp for the robot arm caused the spacewalk to drag on almost eight hours, an hour and a half longer than planned.

The European Space Agency has counted on the successful deployment of Columbus and the March 8 launch of a cargo ship to proceed with programs that will include involvement in NASA's plan to send humans to the moon again.

"This will be the first time Europe will have a permanent base in space," said Eyharts, who launched aboard Atlantis and then transferred to the station crew to remain in orbit and set up the new lab.

"We hope that this first participation will help in reinforcing our technical expertise and our experience of operations to be able to go further and participate with the future of space exploration," Eyharts said recently.

Japan is still waiting for NASA to launch its space station contribution -- a three-part laboratory named Kibo. The U.S. space agency plans to begin installing the Japanese lab during its next shuttle mission in March.

NASA has 11 more construction and resupply flights remaining before the $100 billion station is complete and the space shuttles are retired in 2010.