Voyage of Columbus

On this the final spacewalk for the STS-122 Atlantis crew, astronaut Rex Walheim holds onto a handrail and spreads his arms at the Columbus laboratory, the newest piece of hardware on the International Space Station.



The European-built Columbus laboratory will host experiments from throughout Europe's scientific community and will be an important part of the orbiting research complex. NASA's own Destiny laboratory is already in orbit as part of the space station. A Japanese laboratory complex will complete a cutting-edge trio of research bases that will host astronauts and experiments at the station.



Image Credit: NASA



