Begin of a new Columbus project phase - February 7, 2008

Today the STS-122 is scheduled for blastoff this afternoon at GMT 19:45 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

The starting point of this new phase will be the launch of the European Columbus module with the Space Shuttle Atlantis (Mission 1E) today. This will be not only exiting to the team but there will be also very high attention from the media and the public on the International Space Station (ISS), the Columbus Module and on the operations of our Flight Control Team at the Columbus Control Center (Col-CC), located about 25 km away from Munich, Germany.

This new phase of the project with continuous operation of the Columbus Module means new challenges, like 24 hours/7 days operations in shifts with parallel preparation of the next increments or missions on the ISS.

The whole team has worked hard during the last years to prepare the mission and to be ready for launch and operations.

Looking forward to a successful launch and Columbus activation.

J. Martín Canales Romero
Columbus Operation Coordinator
ISS Flight Operations

Southamerican Regional Coordinator
NPoC Perú

LATIN AMERICA
SPACE GENERATION ADVISORY COUNCIL