Columbus lab secured to space station; astronauts waiting to enter

The shuttle and station crews planned to enter the science lab Tuesday and hook up all the power and data cables.

They woke up Tuesday to pianist Jim Brickman’s “Dream Come True,” a dedication from astronaut Rex Walheim’s family.

“Doing a spacewalk certainly is a dream come true but the biggest dream come true is having a wonderful wife, Margie, and my two great little boys, Alex and Jeffrey,” Walheim said.

Walheim was one of two spacewalkers who helped install Europe’s shiny new US$2 billion (euro1.38 billion) lab on Monday during an outing that took longer to complete than expected. The astronauts shouted and cheered when the 23-foot (7-meter), 14-ton lab finally reached its docking port on the station, after a slow move out of Atlantis’ payload bay.

“A great day for Europe,” said the European Space Agency’s station program manager, Alan Thirkettle. “She looks just beautiful.”

The spacewalk by Walheim and Stanley Love lasted eight hours, 1{ hours longer than usual. Germany’s recovering astronaut, Hans Schlegel, was stuck inside the whole time.

Schlegel was supposed to float outside with Walheim to help with Columbus’ hookup, but got sick following last week’s liftoff and was replaced by Love. The last-minute switch in crew prompted NASA to delay Columbus’ installation by a day and lengthen Atlantis’ space station visit.

U.S. and European space officials have not divulged the illness. Thirkettle said it was disappointing that a European was not part of Monday’s spacewalking team, but noted, “It was extremely important for us that Columbus was attached properly today.”

The European Space Agency waited years to see Columbus fly. The lab was supposed to go up in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the sailing of Christopher Columbus, but space station and then shuttle problems delayed everything.

The addition of Columbus expanded the almost 10-year-old space station to eight rooms. It was attached directly to the Harmony compartment that arrived last fall. Another of Harmony’s docking ports will be occupied by Japan’s new lab once it launches in the spring.

Additional work on the lab’s exterior will be performed during a second spacewalk on Wednesday and a third on Friday. Unless flight surgeons object, Schlegel is expected to make Wednesday’s spacewalk, along with Walheim.

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