By Ed Stoddard
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Astronauts worked to outfit Europe'snew permanent space laboratory on Saturday as a busy visit byNASA's shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Stationneared its end.
NASA readied landing sites at both the Kennedy Space Centrein Florida and Edwards Air Force Base in California to ensure aWednesday landing, as the U.S. military is waiting for theshuttle to land before it tries to shoot down a disabled spysatellite with a missile.
During a news conference with reporters in Europe and theUnited States, Atlantis commander Steve Frick said he had noworries about the satellite shootdown.
"We don't have any concerns ... we're going to be safely onthe ground before they take any action," Frick said.
The Pentagon on Thursday said the Navy would try to destroythe satellite before it enters the atmosphere, using a modifiedtactical missile from a ship in the Pacific, to avert apotentially deadly leak of toxic gas from its fuel tank.
The Columbus module, the European Space Agency's $1.9billion (969 million pound) space lab, was launched aboardAtlantis last week and connected to the space station onMonday.
The astronauts on Saturday set up a physiology moduleinside Columbus to investigate effects of long-durationspaceflight on the human body, an area of interest with NASA'slong-range goal of a manned Mars mission.
They also worked on activating a biolab that will be usedfor a range of experiments on cells, tissue cultures and otherorganisms.
"Biolab is still being worked on. It is a very complicatedrack to set up," ISS Flight Director Bob Dempsey told a pressbriefing at the Johnson Space Centre. He said the crews wouldlikely be still busy with it on Sunday.
The external work on the lab during this mission was cappedon Friday when spacewalking astronauts installed a solarobservatory and an experimental facility on it.
Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the space station at4:26 a.m. EST (9:26 a.m. British time) on Monday and is due totouch down on Wednesday at 9:06 a.m. (2:06 p.m British time).
The space shuttle crew will bid farewell to the ISS crew onSunday as the hatches between the two machines are to be closedat 12:15 p.m. EST (5:15 p.m. British time).
This mission, which has involved three space walks and beenmostly trouble-free, has focused mostly on Columbus, whichgives Europe its first permanent presence in space.
The solar observatory installed on it contains instrumentsthat will, among other things, measure aspects of the sun'senergy and help scientists decipher the impact of solaractivity on Earth's climate.
The other facility attached to Columbus' hull will be usedto conduct a range of space-related experiments. These includeexposing lichen and fungi to space conditions for about 1-1/2years to test the limits of their survival.
The agency has nine construction missions remaining tocomplete the $100 billion outpost and two resupply flightsplanned before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
(Editing by Vicki Allen)
