The ISS station is ready to welcome Atlantis

On November 24, on orbit about 346 km from Earth, the astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) spent more than 7 hours walking in space to complete the steps to prepare for the Airship Station. Atlantis shuttle. Early next month, Atlantis will be launched to carry Columbus's first $ 2 billion European space laboratory to connect to the Station.

The Reuters news agency quoted a spokesman for the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), who said that the ISS Peggy Whitson and Chief of Staff Dan Tani had spent most of their time on an outing walk. Time for moving two panels (pallets) weighing 136 kg, 5.6 m long to new positions.

Head of the ISS Peggy Whitson Station on an aerial walk on November 24 (Photo: Katu.com)

These pallets serve to transport the cooling wire of the steel wire to the Harmony module, which will be the port for Columpus lab to connect. The Harmony module is also the connection port for Japan's Kibo experiment module, which is expected to be launched in February next year.

Previously, it was part of a plan to prepare the Columbus lab to connect, the ISS Space Station's 16th expedition team, Captain Peggy Whitson and the two astronauts Dan Tani and Yuri Malenchenko had two trips. out into space. The third trip yesterday was also the last of the " marathon " lasted for 15 days in a hurry for ISS Station astronauts to arrive before Atlantis arrived.

Currently, Space Shuttle Atlantis has entered the launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida (USA) . The Columbus Laboratory was also placed in the ship's luggage compartment. If nothing changes, the Atlantis will be launched on June 6 in the scheduled 11-day flight.

The STS-122, the Atlantis crew, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center and is in the process of actively training before the flight. In addition to Captain Stephen N. Frick, the delegation also has pilots Alan G. Poindexter and Rex J. Walheim astronauts, Stanley G. Love, Leland D. Melvin, along with two people from the Space Agency. Europe (ESA) is German astronaut Hans Schlegel (56) and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts (50 years old). The two ESA astronauts will assume the mission of connecting the Columbus lab to the Station.

STS-122 crew (from left): Flight commander Stephen Frick, pilot Alan Poindexter, Leland Melvin astronauts, Rex Walheim, Hans Schlegel (German, from European Space Agency - ESA), Stanley Love and Leopold Eyharts (French, ESA, will stay at the ISS Station to replace Dan Tani) - (Photo: Reuters)

Reportedly, NASA is speeding up the construction of the ISS Station to be completed by 2010 as expected. That is also five US shuttle missions that will expire. NASA plans to replace the shuttle fleet by means of Orion space exploration with Ares I boosters, which will soon be flying in 2013.

The International Space Station is a space exploration program with the agreement of 16 countries and costs about $ 100 billion. In particular, China is a country not present in the Station building members and currently has the ambition to build its own a space station.

DB (synthesized)