page_title: International Space Station
section_title: Columbus
hierarchical_section_title: International Space Station / Structure / Pressurised modules / Columbus
caption_attribution_description: English: Fly-around view of the International Space Station (ISS) from STS-127 crew on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Backaway view of the forward (FWD) side of the European Columbus Module. Image ID: s127e009781
context_page_description: The International Space Station is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project between five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The ISS program evolved from the Space Station Freedom, an American proposal in the 1980s to construct a permanently crewed Earth-orbiting station.
  The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific experiments are conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields. The station is suited for testing the spacecraft systems and equipment required for possible future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars. It is the largest artificial object in space and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit, regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth's surface. It maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 400 kilometres by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda Service Module or visiting spacecraft. The ISS circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day.
context_section_description: Columbus is a science laboratory that is part of the ISS and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency (ESA).
  The Columbus laboratory was flown to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida in an Airbus Beluga. It was launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on 7 February 2008 on flight STS-122. It is designed for ten years of operation.  The module is controlled by the Columbus Control Centre, located at the German Space Operations Centre, part of the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany.
  The European Space Agency has spent €1.4 billion (about US$2 billion) on building Columbus, including the experiments that will orbit in Columbus and the ground control infrastructure necessary to operate the experiments.
caption: The Columbus module on the ISS
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