Atlantis is to deliver to the ISS a European-built space laboratory named Columbus. Until now, only the United States and Russia have had their own laboratories, which form the heart of the ISS.

"We have never had a permanent base in space before and I see that like a first step for Europe in the real spaceflight activities compared to what we had in the past," said Leopold Eyharts, a French astronaut who works for the European Space Agency.

Eyharts is part of the Atlantis crew and will stay behind at the ISS for two and a half months to prepare Columbus for future scientific work.

For his German counterpart, Hans Schlegel, also of the ESA and a member of the Atlantis crew, the mission will mark "a tremendous step."

"We are becoming a more important partner for the international spaceflight community," he said.

With Columbus, Europe hopes to become an integral part of the only functioning orbital outpost, whose scientific experiments with microgravity are considered essential to prepare human kind for long-term life and work in space and subsequent journeys towards Mars and beyond.

Columbus will allow astronauts to conduct hundreds of experiments a year, notably in areas of biotechnology, medicine, materials and fluids.

The Japanese laboratory Kibo, the fourth planned component of the ISS which is to be the largest and most sophisticated of all, should be delivered in three shuttle flights, the first of which is scheduled for February 2008.

Schlegel will carry out two out of three spacewalks planned for the Atlantis mission. He will be accompanied by astronaut Rex Walheim, who will help Schlegel attach Columbus to the Harmony module, which will also serve as a port for the Japanese laboratory Kibo.

During the third spacewalk, Walheim and American Stanley Coils will set up two research platforms outside of Columbus: SOLAR, a solar observatory and EuTEF (European Technology Exposure Facility), which will help conduct eight different research experiments aimed at studies of life in space.

Designed to be carried in the hold of the shuttle, the European laboratory is cylindrical shaped; 6.87 meters (yards) long and 4.49 meters in diameter. Columbus weighs 10.3 tons when empty and 19.3 tons fully loaded.

It can accommodate up to three persons and carry 10 research equipment units.

Construction of the space laboratory, which cost close to a billion euros, began in 1992.

Initially it was planned that Columbus would be flown to the ISS at the end of 2004.

But the tragic end of the shuttle Columbia in February 2003 had resulted in the grounding of the three remaining shuttle orbiters for two years, which in turned delayed the laboratory's launch.

Columbus will be controlled from a German space operations center located in Oberpfaffenhofen, close to Munich.

Germany is by far the biggest contributor of this project, financing 41 percent of the total cost. Italy contributed 23 percent and France 18 percent.

In all, 10 European countries participate in the program.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) gave the green light Friday to Atlantis's launch, which is scheduled for December 6 at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2131 GMT.

The 11-day mission calls for three spacewalks aimed at attaching Columbus to the ISS, and possibly a fourth one could be added in order to inspect a faltering mechanism in one of three solar panels serving the station.

A fourth walk could lengthen Atlantis's stay in orbit.

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