After a journey that started at the weekend, the European Columbus laboratory arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, the United States, yesterday afternoon.
Europe’s largest single contribution to the International Space Station, the laboratory will provide internal payload accommodation for various scientific experiments.
Ahead of its transatlantic journey, the 4.5-metre diameter cylindrical module was packed into the transportation container at the EADS Space Transportation facility in Bremen, Germany.
On Sunday 28 May, Columbus was loaded onto an Airbus A300-600 ‘Beluga’ heavy lift aircraft at Bremen Airport. With overnight stopovers in Iceland and Canada along the way, and two short refuelling stops in Greenland and Cleveland, in the United States, Columbus touched down in Florida yesterday afternoon.
NASA will welcome the Columbus module during a ceremony on Friday 2 June in Kennedy’s Space Station Processing Facility.
