Crew 

ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts of France (whose back up is Belgian Frank De Winne) is set to fly with Columbus on Space Shuttle Atlantis mission STS-122.

He returns home with the Endeavour STS-123 crew some two months later. The astronaut acts as fly engineer for the delivery and commissioning of the European Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Léopold Eyharts is a member of the Expedition 16 crew to the ISS whose Commander is American astronaut Peggy A. Whitson and the other fly engineer is Russian Yuri Malenchenko. These two astronauts are already onboard the ISS since October 2007 with the American astronaut Daniel M. Tani who will be replaced by Léopold Eyharts.

En route to the ISS, Eyharts is accompanied by another ESA astronaut Hans Schlegel of Germany, and five NASA crewmates. These astronauts stay during 14 days onboard the ISS and take Shuttle Atlantis return trip home 14 days after launch with American astronaut Daniel M. Tani taking Eyharts’s place.

During the sixties days onboard the ISS Léopold Eyharts has to oversee the activation and check-out of the Columbus laboratory. He plays a key part in the installation, activation and commissioning of ESA’s Columbus laboratory. Final laboratory commissioning and activation/check-out of the science experiment racks are carried out by Léopold Eyharts as a member of the resident ISS crew.

Eyharts will become the first European astronaut to test and operate in-orbit the systems of the Columbus module. He is also in charge of performing European science experiments carried onboard the laboratory.