Installing a space antenna

Europe strengthened its connection to space on Wednesday 27 January, as NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins (white suit with red stripes) and Victor Glover (plain white suit) installed the Columbus Ka-band or ColKa terminal outside ESA’s Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station.

This antenna will create an additional bi-directional KA-band data transmission for the Space Station, providing a direct link between the Columbus laboratory and Europe, for researchers and astronauts, at home broadband speeds. 

Victor transported the fridge-sized unit from the airlock to the worksite on the Canadarm2 robotic arm, with assistance from NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi inside the Station. There, he and Mike set to work unscrewing and screwing bolts to hold the antenna in place and routing cables for power and data, guided by the voice of ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen from NASA’s mission control centre in Houston.

Mike and Victor also connected power cables for external commercial research platform Bartolomeo, located outside Columbus. This connection will be continued during a future spacewalk.