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Endeavour has Safely Returned to Earth Carrying ESA Astronaut from International Space Station

Returning from its 16-day STS-123 mission to the International Space Station, NASA’s Shuttle Endeavour has safely returned to earth, with a crew of seven onboard, including ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts of France, who spent nearly 49 days in space on a mission to dock and commission Europe’s Columbus laboratory.

Landing took place at 01:39 CET on 27 March, at the Kennedy Space Center shuttle landing strip at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Léopold Eyharts (50) had been dispatched to the ISS on the previous shuttle flight on Atlantis on 7 February. That STS-122 mission included another ESA astronaut, Hans Schlegel of Germany. On 10 February, shortly after Atlantis had docked with the ISS, Eyharts was inducted in the resident ISS crew, trading places with NASA astronaut Dan Tani as a member of the Expedition 16 increment alongside NASA’s Peggy Whitson and Russian astronaut Yuri Malenchenko.

First onboard Columbus
One of Eyharts’ early tasks on board was to support the docking of the Columbus laboratory, firstly at the commands of the Station’s robotic arm to extract the European module from the shuttle cargo bay and later by activating the motorised bolts from inside the Harmony node module to secure the junction. “The European Columbus module is now part of the ISS,” he announced to mission control in Houston, Moscow and Munich at 21:44 UT (22:44 CET) on 11 February once the docking was complete.

On the following day, Eyharts became the first astronaut to ingress the Columbus module in orbit. He wore a mask and goggles and carried a flashlight to check the laboratory’s status before the atmosphere was scrubbed and the lights were turned on. As soon as Columbus was cleared for access, together with Hans Schlegel and other crew members, he immediately started reconfiguration and activation of the module. Eyharts remained onboard the ISS when Atlantis departed with Schlegel to return to earth.

Léopold Eyharts spent 44 days onboard the ISS and devoted a large part of his time to activation and checking of the Columbus module and its racks in order to be able start up actual science experimentation inside the laboratory. As an ISS crew member, he also contributed to certain international science experiments and to maintenance of the Station’s equipment.

Supporting international expansion of the ISS
When Endeavour docked with the ISS on 13 March, Eyharts swapped crew assignments again, this time with NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, and joined the crew of the STS-123 mission.

As a qualified mission specialist in robotics, Eyharts contributed to the STS-123 assembly mission as operator of the Station’s robotic arm alongside Reisman and Bob Behnken, another NASA mission specialist. Together, they added a new module to the ISS – the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module, Pressurised Section (JLP) – and supported the assembly and activation of the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, a Canadian-built two-armed robotic telemanipulator also known as “Dextre”. The SPDM is designed to conduct extra-vehicular activities that would have previously required spacewalks.

Léopold Eyharts left the ISS onboard Endeavour on 25 March. He brought back with him the very first results of an experiment carried onboard Columbus. Commissioning of the European laboratory module will be finalised by the resident ISS crew of the Expedition 16 and 17 increments.

Eyharts is the second ESA astronaut to have become part of the resident ISS crew, Thomas Reiter having spent six months onboard in 2006. This was Eyharts’ second mission to a space station, having already flown to the Russian Mir station back in 1998.

More ESA astronauts to join resident ISS crew
With Columbus now attached, such flights will be carried out more often. The next ESA astronaut to go – in 2009 – will be Frank de Winne of Belgium, with André Kuipers of the Netherlands acting as backup.

Meanwhile, ESA will keep up the momentum of its contributions to the ISS with the upcoming docking of the Jules Verne ATV, ESA’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle, scheduled for 3 April, and the launching of more science experiments to be conducted inside Columbus on future shuttle missions.

Columbus is designed to support some 100 experiments per year over ten years. These experiments address all the major research areas: biology, exobiology, human physiology, fluid physics, fundamental physics, technology, solar physics. More European-built elements are also under preparation to be launched to the ISS over the coming years, notably the European Robotic Arm, the Node 3 module and the Cupola observation post.

About STS-123
STS-123 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. STS-123 was the 1J/A ISS assembly mission. The original launch target date was February 14, 2008 but after the delay of STS-122, the shuttle was launched on March 11, 2008. It was the twenty-fifth shuttle mission to visit the ISS, and delivered the first module of the Japanese laboratory, Japanese Experiment Module (Kibō), and the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, (SPDM) Dextre robotics system to the station. The mission duration was 15 days and 18 hours, and it was the first mission to fully utilize the Shuttle-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS), allowing space station power to augment the shuttle power systems. The mission set a record for the shuttle's longest stay at the ISS in shuttle flight history. The completion of the mission left nine flights remaining in the Space Shuttle program until its end in 2010, excluding two as-yet-unconfirmed Contingency Logistic Flights.

STS-123 delivered the pressurized section of the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module (ELM-PS) as well as the SPDM to the International Space Station. The SPDM was delivered disassembled on a Spacelab Pallet (SLP) and assembled during three spacewalks once it was at the station.

In August 2007, STS-123 crew members participated in crew equipment interface tests for the ELM-PS at Kennedy Space Center. Processing continues on schedule for Endeavour 's launch in early 2008. NASA engineers applied the same ECO sensor modifications used on STS-122's external tank, to Endeavour's tank. In January, a HEPA filter contamination issue was discovered, but was resolved and with no impact to the mission.

On Monday, February 11, 2008, Endeavour was "rolled over" to the Vehicle Assembly Building in preparation for mating with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. On Wednesday, February 13, Endeavour was successfully mated with its external tank and solid rocket boosters, and was rolled out to Launch Pad 39A in the early hours of Monday, February 18, for its planned launch on March 11. The Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, a full dress rehearsal for launch with the crew, took place February 23-25.

About International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in space. The on-orbit assembly of ISS began in 1998. The space station is in a low Earth orbit and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye: it has an altitude of 350-460 km (217-286 statute miles) above the surface of the Earth, and travels at an average speed of 27,700 km (17,210 statute miles) per hour, completing 15.77 orbits per day. The ISS is a joint project among the space agencies of the United States (NASA), Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and eleven European countries (ESA).

The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB, Brazil) participates through a separate contract with NASA. The Italian Space Agency similarly has separate contracts for various activities not done in the framework of ESA's ISS works (where Italy also fully participates). China has reportedly expressed interest in the project, especially if it is able to work with the RKA. The Chinese are not currently involved, however.

The ISS is a continuation of what began as the U.S. Space Station Freedom, the funding for which was cut back severely. It represents a merger of Freedom with several other previously planned space stations: Russia's Mir 2, the European Columbus and Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. The projected completion date is 2010, with the station remaining in operation until around 2016. As of 2008, the ISS is already larger than any previous space station.

The ISS has been continuously inhabited since the first resident crew entered the station on November 2, 2000, thereby providing a permanent human presence in space. The crew of Expedition 16 are currently aboard. At present the station has a capacity for a crew of three. In order to fulfill an active research program it will be necessary to eventually hold 6 crew members. Early crew members all came from the Russian and U.S. space programs. German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter joined the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006, becoming the first crew member from another space agency. The station has, however, been visited by astronauts from 15 countries. The ISS was also the destination of the first five space tourists.

The station is serviced primarily by Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and by U.S. Space Shuttle orbiters. On March 9, 2008, the European Space Agency ESA launched an Ariane 5 with the first Jules Verne ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle toward the ISS carrying over 8,000 kilograms of cargo. Rendezvous and docking are planned for early April, 2008.

The assembly of the International Space Station is a major aerospace engineering endeavor. When assembly is complete the ISS will have a pressurized volume of approximately 1,000 cubic meters. Assembly began in November 1998 with the launch of Zarya -- the first ISS module -- on a Proton rocket, and as of March 2008 assembly is about 70% of total assembly complete.

Two weeks after Zarya was launched, the STS-88 shuttle mission followed, bringing Unity, the first of three node modules, and connecting it to Zarya. This bare 2-module core of the ISS remained unmanned for the next one and a half years, until in July 2000 the Russian module Zvezda was added, allowing a maximum crew of three astronauts or cosmonauts to be on the ISS permanently.

About Columbus Laboratory
Columbus is a science laboratory that is part of the International Space Station (ISS) and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Like the Harmony Module, the Columbus laboratory was constructed in Turin, Italy by Rome based Alcatel Alenia Space with respect to structures and thermal control. The functional architecture (including software) of the lab was designed by EADS in Germany where it was also integrated before being flown to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida in an Airbus Beluga. It was launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on February 7, 2008 on flight STS-122. It is designed for ten years of operation. The module is controlled by the Columbus Control Centre, located at the German Space Operations Centre, part of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany.

The European Space Agency has spent €1.4 billion (about $2 billion) on building Columbus, including the experiments that will fly in it and the ground control infrastructure necessary to operate them.

The laboratory is a cylindrical module with two end cones. It is 4,477 mm (15 ft) in external diameter and 6,871 mm (23 ft) in overall length, excluding the projecting external experiment racks. Its shape is very similar to that of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules, since both were designed to fit in the cargo bay of a Space Shuttle orbiter. The starboard end cone contains most of the laboratory's on-board computers. The port end cone contains the Common Berthing Mechanism.

ESA chose EADS Astrium Space Transportation as prime contractor for Columbus. The Columbus flight structure, the micro-meteorite protection system, the active and passive thermal control, the environmental control, the harness and all the related ground support equipment were designed and qualified by Alcatel Alenia Space in Turin, Italy as defined by the PICA - Principle (for definition see History below); the related hardware was pre-integrated and sent as PICA in September 2001 to Bremen. The lab was then fully integrated and qualified on system level at the EADS Astrium Space Transportation facilities in Bremen, Germany.

Pictures Overview
In figure 1, Endeavour lands at Kennedy Space Center, Florida

In figure 2, One of Eyharts' early tasks was to support docking of Columbus

In figure 3, Eyharts was a member of the Expedition 16 crew

In figure 4, STS-123 and Expedition 16 crews together

In figure 5, Eyharts contributed to the STS-123 mission as a robotic arm operator

In figure 6, Frank De Winne is next to join the resident crew