June 2, 2006 — NASA hosted a coming out party on Friday honoring the arrival of Europe's first space laboratory, but it will be a while before the real celebration begins.
The Columbus module joins a long list of gleaming new gear awaiting launch to the International Space Station. The objects' fate rests on space shuttle Discovery, which is being prepared for liftoff in July.
In the year since Discovery last flew, NASA has struggled with a second redesign of the shuttle fuel tank in hopes of preventing another Columbia-like disaster.
Foam falling from the tank damaged Columbia's heat shield, leading to its destruction and the deaths of seven astronauts in February 2003. Debris also fell during Discovery's July 2005 flight, though no large pieces struck the ship.
While NASA worked on the shuttle, assembly of the half-built space station was put on hold. If the redesigned tank proves successful during Discovery's upcoming launch and if no other serious problems arise, NASA intends to resume station construction later this summer.
Before Columbus and other partner modules can fly, NASA must first increase the station's power supplies. The various trusses and solar panel arrays to boost power lie tucked in work stands at a dedicated space station equipment hangar at the Kennedy Space Center.
Columbus is parked next to a connecting node that must be installed before the module flies. Even farther down the flight roster is Japan's massive Kibo laboratory. More than two dozen technicians are busy working on Kibo during Columbus' welcoming ceremony.
There is more station hardware still to come.
"It's pretty full in here already," said NASA's space station program manager Bill Gerstenmaier, looking down the long row of station components lined up like patients in a hospital ward.
At least Columbus won't have to wait at the back of the queue. Its liftoff is targeted for September 2007.
"That's the last, but most important part of its journey," said ESA's Alan Thirkettle.
NASA plans to fly 16 missions to complete the station and needs to do so before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
"We still believe it's do-able," Gerstenmaier said. "But this will not be an easy task."
Sixteen countries are partners in the $100-billion space station project, which is led by the United States and Russia. The two nations have had a monopoly on station transportation and crew assignments, but that arrangement will soon end.
Europe's first live-aboard crewmember, Thomas Reiter, will be hopping a ride to the station with the Discovery crew. And next year, a European Space Agency unmanned cargo ship is scheduled for its debut flight to the outpost.
"We've made an enormous investment in this program," said Thirkettle, who pegs ESA's contribution at between $6 billion and $7 billion for development costs and about $500 million annually for operating costs.
"We made Columbus and we participate in the space station so that tomorrow we'll find the answers to questions we don't even know today," he said.
