European module attached to space station

HOUSTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The European module Columbus was permanently attached to the International Space Station Monday.

Astronauts Rex J. Walheim and Stanley G. Love, aided by a robotic arm, spent nearly eight hours extracting Columbus out of the space shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay and attaching it to the space station, The New York Times reported. The task took about 90 minutes longer than scheduled because of technical problems, the newspaper said.

"Houston and Munich, the European Columbus laboratory module is now part of the International Space Station," Gen. Leopold Eyharts of the French Air Force, who arrived on Atlantis Saturday, said in informing the control centers back on Earth.

The 14-ton European science module is 23 feet long and 15 feet in diameter. Built at a cost of $2 billion, Columbus ads about 2,600 cubic feet of volume to the space station, doubling its research capability, the Times reported.