Successful activation of the European Columbus Module on the ISS

Newly arrived French astronaut Leopold Eyharts and German shuttle flier Hans Schlegel opened hatches to partially enter the European Space Agency's Columbus research module on February 12, marking the moment with a call to flight controllers in Houston, Moscow and now, Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany.

After some very exiting and stressful days including Columbus docking, vestibule outfitting and first commanding, the European Columbus module and his two external payloads SOLAR and EUTEF were successfully commended and activated by the Flight Control Team (FCT) at Columbus Control center (COL-CC) located in Oberpfaffenhoffen.

The ongoing payload activation activities are running smooth also thanks to the immense FCT support.

J. Martín Canales Romero
Operations Coordinator
ISS Flight Operations
Columbus Control Center (COL-CC)