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| | | | | | | Photo Favourite
Columbus is loaded into a transportation container ahead of the journey to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
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ESA's Columbus laboratory will become one of the principal modules of the International Space Station (ISS) when it is launched aboard the US Space Shuttle.
In this pressurised laboratory, European astronauts and their international colleagues will work in a comfortable shirtsleeve environment. It is a state-of-the-art, general-purpose laboratory, accommodating experiments in life sciences, materials processes, technology development, fluid sciences, fundamental physics and other disciplines.
Measuring 6.7 m long and 4.5 m in diameter, the one-piece module will weigh 9.9 tonnes, without its 5 tonnes of research equipment in ten exchangeable modular racks. Payloads will also be attached on four express pallets on the exterior of the Columbus for technology experiments, Earth observation and space science.
Last update: 1 June 2006 | |
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