Hey, they could always try to catch it with Canada Arm 2.

That being said, I thought they considered using the Ariane-5/ATV to launch Columbus? Why they chose to use the Shuttle I'm not exactly sure. Then again, I don't really follow European space matters too well.

Thanks for the translation.

Well, a few more hours, and Columbus is away. Hopefully.

There, not much of a delay and its finally off in space.

Unfortunately the giant catcher's mit was never installed due to budget cuts.

I did not know that.
Would the dimensions of the lab be fitting for the Ariane that launches the ATV?

The weight of Columbus seems to be considerable lower than the weight of an ATV.

PS: I am glad Columbus has been launched finally. I am looking forward to see it being attached, commissioned and soon becoming operational.

__________________
When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

The space program has become a corporate welfare program, the ISS was warmly greeted by bureaucracies around the world, as it allowed them to steer boondoggle programs to their favorite industries under the guise of "Science".
Almost no scientific work occurs on the ISS, the vast majority of the effort expended goes into keeping it operational, with just enough crew to perform custodial duties, and the occasional "scientific work" to maintain the pretense that this is a noble enterprise to expand the knowledge of mankind.
For a fraction of what has been spent on the ISS, robot missions to all the planets, numerous orbiting space telescopes and all kinds of real scientific experiments could have been funded and real knowledge gained.

The manned space program is a circus act that costs ten times as much as a robot probe, and returns one tenth of the data.

__________________
“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

This is due to the fact of some very unlucky developments like the Space Shuttle disaster. With only 3 men in space its hardly possible to do large amounts of research.

This will however change soon. After Columbus is commissioned, and I think the Japanese lab follows this year, its planned that finally the number of astronauts is doubled to 6 permanent members. Then effective research will begin to be possible.

__________________
When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

Yes, but only till about 2015 since NASA is pulling out to fund a even larger white elephant. That being said, whoo-hoo, Columbus has been anchored to the station.

Agreed, but the real folly is that we didn't learn what a giant waste of money ISS was/is and Bush insisted on going back to the Moon and staying while going to Mars at the same time. While the most successful NASA missions have all been robotic. Them rovers are still on going, like the energizer bunny and along with the other robotic satellites have told us much more about Mars than a human mission could scientifically. 4 years a counting, while a manned mission to Mars consist of 36 months of travel and at best a few days on the surface.

I read in the media the remaining time span of 10 years. That would be rather 2018 than.

I refuse to talk down the ISS already now. We would be stupid to abandon it now that it finally could do some work done, and it will show when we wreck it how bad the balance really was.

If its such a waste of money I wonder myself however why Japan and Europe are contributing to it.

__________________
When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

Hmm, I read it as somewhere between 2015 and 2016 and mostly due to NASA cutting all funding. Though 2015 is a long ways from now, and all that is certain is that it'll be sometime between 2015 to 2025.

Agreed, I don't agree with the ISS, but I think its remarkably stupid to invest so much time & money into something and walk away from it just barely after its complete.

Its a waste of money if its decommissioned before we get any real use out of it. We'll see what happens, but it'd ridiculous that it be abandoned at the least for a shorter time than it has been under constructed (or at least until its lived out its lifespan). Why are Japan & Europe contributing? Well its very simple, they finally have a manned foot-hole in space. The Japanese Lab is even bigger than the European one, and the ISS is probably much cheaper for JAXA & the ESA than for them to build a manned space program from the ground up.

The Japanese module is bigger in volume, but not in the number of scientific racks. I have not really found out why. Does it perhaps cover more nonscientific systems necessary to run the station than Columbus?

Whereas Columbus is not the sole contribution from Europe. Node 2 (Harmony) was produced in Italy and went under a barter agreement to NASA. Node 3 yet to be lifted is European as well. Also a European robotic arm will follow and the Cupola as well. Apart from that will Europe as I saw it serve with the largest capacity transport vehicle to the basis once the Space Shuttle is out of business. (The first ATV is to be launched soon. It has a loading capacity of 9 t. The Japanese HTV has a capacity of 6 t)

I have looked it up on Wikipedia. There it is claimed that JAXA has an overall ISS budget of 10 billion $ and ESA of 8 billion €. Under current exchange rate that would mean ESA spends a bit more, but exchange rates can change, so maybe its safe to say the effort are of similar dimensions.


Having that all said, I can see the reasons for your skepticism towards manned space flight. Actually ESA has a proud budget for automatic missions and is quite successful with them as well. Its an unbelievable advantage to be not loaded with a fortune eating monster like the Space Shuttle and instead having a working horse that is even for private companies the favorite choice in lifting their satellites.

__________________
When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

LOL...You're just jealous...The Shuttle is great.