Astronauts to Outfit Station's New Lab for Science

From SPACE.com:

Spacewalkers will attach new experiments to the space station's hull. A pair of spacewalking astronauts will outfit the International Space Station's (ISS) new Columbus laboratory for science Friday when they add new experiments to the module's orbital porch. Atlantis shuttle astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love will step outside the station's Quest airlock at 8:40 a.m. EST (1340 GMT) to attach two European research platforms aimed at studying the sun and space environment. "First will be SOLAR, which is a solar telescope that mounts to the outside of Columbus," Love said in a NASA interview. Equipped with three separate instruments, SOLAR is a two-year experiment to study the sun across a variety of wavelengths and monitor the interactions of solar weather with the Earth's atmosphere. Love will attach the bulky experiment to the upper of two available platforms on Columbus' outboard end while perched at the tip of the station's crane-like Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Read the whole article