President's Page
Amsterdam, 7 Febr. 2008.
Dear ELGRA members,
With a beautiful launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-122) from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at 20:45 CET tonight with the European Columbus module within its cargo bay a very important step has been made towards the utilization of the International Space Station.
The Columbus includes facilities for both physical and life sciences and technology such as the Fluid Science Laboratory, the European Drawer Rack, Biolab, the European Physiology Modules, the European Transport Carrier and the external facilities Eutef and Solar. The Protein Crystallisation Diagnostics Facility and a novel exercise devise against microgravity deconditioning, the Flywheel, complete the major facilities in the European module. Columbus will be installed by the ESA astronauts Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts in the days to come.
With this successful launch Atlantis will not only deliver Columbus with its new research facilities for ISS but it also provides Europe with its full utilization capabilities, including European crew members. This increases the possibilities to perform our science in ISS significantly.
ELGRA, as representative society
of the European user community, we want to congratulate all that have been working
hard to finally have 'our' Columbus module attached to the ISS in a couple of
days. We can look forward to an interesting time in low gravity research.
Sincerely yours,
Jack van Loon
ELGRA President
