spacetoday.net: Astronauts open up Columbus, prepare for second EVA

Posted: Wed, Feb 13, 2008, 10:04 AM ET (1504 GMT)

Astronauts on the International Space Station opened up their newest module on Tuesday as two astronauts prepared for the second spacewalk of the STS-122 mission, scheduled for Wednesday. Astronauts entered the Columbus module on Tuesday, one day after it was attached to the space station during an eight-hour EVA. The activation work included hooking up power and data links and coolant lines to make the module fully operational. The work was led by the two European astronauts on the STS-122 crew, Leopold Eyharts and Hans Schlegel, the latter showing no signs of the unspecified illness that kept him from participating in the EVA Monday. Schlegel declined to specify the nature of his illness in interviews late Tuesday, but did say he was ready to take part in an EVA Wednesday with NASA astronaut Rex Walheim.