Atlantis’ crew spent the day performing a detailed inspection of the shuttle’s thermal blanket over the right Orbital Maneuvering System pod as well as preparing for tomorrow’s spacewalk.

The seven-member crew of Atlantis will spend today preparing for the mission’s first spacewalk on Monday and take a closer look at a small tear on a thermal blanket over the shuttle’s right Orbital Maneuvering System pod. Mission managers added a day to the mission Saturday after delaying the first spacewalk because of a crew medical issue. Plans were finalized last night for a focused inspection of Atlantis’ thermal protection system today beginning at 1:15 p.m. CST. The crew also will ready Harmony for the Columbus research module and transfer cargo to the space station.

Space shuttle Atlantis delivered the European Space Agency’s Columbus science laboratory to the International Space Station today, but the actual installation of the module will be delayed by one day. What wasn’t delayed, however, was the official crew rotation of ESA Astronaut Leopold Eyharts and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani, which was completed at 5:20 p.m. Eyharts now is a member of Expedition 16 and Tani is an STS-122 mission specialist.

The International Space Station’s newest scientific laboratory, the European Space Agency’s Columbus research module, is just hours from completing its journey to the station. Space shuttle Atlantis will deliver the new module and a new crew member to the station when it docks at 11:25 a.m. CST to begin 6 days of docked operations.

The seven-member crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis is ready for tomorrow’s rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, planned for 11:25 a.m. CST.

The seven member crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis has begun its first full day in space on an 11-day mission that delivers the newest research module, the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, to the International Space Station. Installing the laboratory, named for Christopher Columbus, is the primary goal of this 121st space shuttle mission. It will add 2,648 cubic feet of pressurized volume, four science experiment racks and one storage rack to the space station.

Seven years to the day after the first laboratory was launched to the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle Atlantis roared into space this afternoon with the second, the European Space Agency's Columbus lab. Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-122 at 1:45 p.m. CST. Aboard the shuttle are Commander Steve Frick, Pilot Alan Poindexter and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love, Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts. Schlegel and Eyharts are European astronauts.

After 6.25 million miles and 15 days, space shuttle Discovery landed safely in Florida completing its 34th mission and circling the Earth 238 times.

The astronauts on space shuttle Discovery are only hours away from a landing in Florida that will conclude a successful 15-day mission that delivered a new module and repaired a damaged solar array on the International Space Station.

The seven astronauts on board space shuttle Discovery completed final preparations today for their return home with landing planned for the first of two opportunities to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 12:02 p.m. Wednesday.