On 19 October 2004, the Control Centre for the Columbus Laboratory is being inaugurated. Columbus is Europe's module for the ISS, due for launch in 2006. Its Control Centre, located near Munich (Germany), is operated by the German Aerospace Centre DLR, and is now ready to look after ESA's manned missions to the ISS. This includes all missions to ESA astronauts to the ISS, starting in April 2005. This exchange includes footage of the Centre, and sound bites by ESA and DLR officials on its role and functions.

00:26 Thomas Reiter will soon begin the first long term stay on the International Space Station. He has been part of ESA’s astronaut corps since 1992. He will travel to ISS on the Space Shuttle, and will become the European record holder for man in space.

01:17 Thomas Reiter, ESA Astronaut, speaks about the coming 6 months in space.

01:30 Space Shuttle Discovery will bring Reiter to ISS, together with equipment, as well as bring equipment back to Earth.

02:30 Thomas Reiter, ESA Astronaut, tells that he together with the other astronauts will be very busy with experiments, maintaining the station as well get it ready to expand it capability.

02:56 Thomas Reiter will perform a serious of medical experiments during his station on ISS, paving the way for European Columbus Laboratory.

03:18 Reinhold Ewald, ESA’s ISS Operations Manager, explains that the Russian segments, the US Segment, the Japanese segment, the Canadian Arm, and ESA’s Columbus module all form separate parts of the International Space Station. The operations Centre for Columbus is located in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. The monitoring of Reiter will be done from this centre.

04:10 The Astrolab mission will mark a new achievement for European.

04:30 The End