Time and Space: launching Columbus to orbit
The addition of ESA's Columbus laboratory, and the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) programme, changed the shape of European participation on the International Space Station. But its launch came at a challenging time for human spaceflight. In this episode ESA astronaut Frank De Winne and former ESA International Space Station programme manager Bernardo Patti talk about Columbus' launch on Space Shuttle Atlantis, the tragedy that preceded it, and what the science lab has enabled for Europeans in space to this day.