The International Space Station
Europe in the ISS : we’re tougher when there are 11 of us!
Apart from providing transport to the ISS using the European Ariane launcher, Europe is supplying many electronic and IT solutions as well as two key elements of the station, a laboratory, Columbus, and a highly versatile vehicle, the ATV.
Europe will soon be a co-tenant in its own area
Up until now, Europeans did not have a place “to themselves” on board the International Space Station, even if they have been participating a lot. That will be all over by the end of 2007 when the Columbus laboratory docks at the station using a connecting “node” with the structure. At that point, within this whole international assembly that is the ISS, there will be a little corner of Europe, of considerable importance.
Europe on the go
Above all Thomas Reiter was able to install and put into service a whole range of heavy equipment produced by the European company EADS Astrium, such as the Melfi cold room, a space freezer for keeping all the biological and medical samples and specimens. Like the Modular Culture System, an incubator intended for research into the growth of plants, or like the HLTA tensiometre, a Cardiolab instrument that can provide cardiovascular data for the entire crew.
