NASA mission to install solar probe

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Astronauts and ground control teams hustled to get Europe's newly delivered space laboratory prepared for science experiments on Thursday as NASA ironed out plans for a final spacewalk by the shuttle Atlantis crew.

During Friday's spacewalk, astronauts will among other tasks install instruments the European Space Agency will use to measure the variability of solar energy and plot models to help determine the impact of solar activity on the earth's climate.

"We can get a more accurate reading in space than we could on Earth with the same instruments," Bruno Musetti, the chief engineer for the project, told Reuters.

The European Space Agency's $1.9 billion Columbus module was ferried into orbit aboard the shuttle last week and installed during the first of three spacewalks planned during Atlantis' nine-day visit to the International Space Station.

"I cannot yet believe Columbus is in orbit," the European Space Agency director general, Jean Jacques Dordain, told the astronauts.

During the call, German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated German astronaut Hans Schlegel, a member of the shuttle Atlantis crew, on his first spacewalk on Wednesday.

"It was the first time I saw the Earth from outside the vehicle. The colors are very vivid," said Schlegel, who was pulled from an earlier spacewalk due to an undisclosed medical condition.

"It is very important that humankind continues research in space and has an opportunity to go to space and see the beautiful Earth," he said.

The mission has been smooth and from NASA's point of view trouble-free to date.

"Virtually everything has been going flawlessly," International Space Station Flight Director Bob Dempsey said at a press briefing on Thursday at the Johnson Space Center.

Also during Friday's spacewalk, astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love will try to inspect a corroded joint that has prompted NASA to lock one of the station's two solar power wings into place and check whether a small hole in a handrail is what ripped astronauts' gloves during spacewalks.

The spacewalk is scheduled to start at 8:40 a.m. EST and is expected to last about 6 1/2 hours.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida was preparing for the next shuttle launch on March 11 in which shuttle Endeavour will carry the first part of Japan's Kibo laboratory complex into orbit. The shuttle is scheduled to be rolled out to the launch pad on Monday.

NASA wants to carry out nine more shuttle missions to complete construction of the $100 billion space station and two resupply flights before the fleet is retired in 2010. The agency also plans a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope in September.

(Editing by Michael Christie and Peter Cooney)