The seven crew members of the shuttle Atlantis and their three colleagues on the ISS spoke to journalists through a live link up from space.

US space shuttle Atlantis has been docked to the ISS while helping launch the European Columbus laboratory, and is expected to detach itself Monday before returning to Earth on Wednesday.

Three separate space walks were completed to launch the two-billion-dollar (1.4-billion-euro) lab.

"The time has really flown by more than you can possibly imagine. There is not just the work, but also all the things of daily life such as brushing your teeth that require a special effort," German astronaut Hans Schlegel said.

The 10-tonne Columbus laboratory represents a milestone in Europe's role in space. Paid for mostly by Germany, Italy and France, it is the first ISS addition not made in the United States or Russia.

The laboratory will be used for biotechnology and medicine experiments involving microgravity.

The astronauts also dismissed fears that US plans to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite could affect them.

The US navy is waiting for the return of the Atlantis before attempting to fire a missile at the satellite from a ship in the Pacific.

"We don't have any concern," said the commander of the Atlantis mission, American Stephen Frick.

"We are going to be safely on the ground before they take any action and the satellite is going to be well below the space station."

The 56-year old German astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA) smiled and appeared to have completely recovered from the illness that stopped him from participating in one of the space walks to install Columbus.

Schlegel, who first went on a space mission 15 years ago, described what it was like to return.

"On the one hand, you have more experience, but on the other you don't react as quickly."

"I had slightly forgotten the sensations (of weightlessness)," said French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who spent 19 days in space in 1998 with a Russian Mir space station mission.

Eyharts said he had "less than a week to readapt and relearn how to work and do all these other activities, so it was very intense in the first few days at the beginning of the flight."

He added that "on Columbus, we have begun two experiments: one on the growth of plants in weightlessness, and the other is an experiment in the physics of fluids, which is aimed at correcting current models of how liquids circulate in the Earth's core."

He said he was "overjoyed to have been involved with the mission to install and activate the first European module -- perhaps also to see the arrival of the first European cargo craft."

That cargo ship, the ATV Jules Verne, is to be launched on March 8 and could join up with the ISS around two weeks later. But its docking with the ISS might only take place after the return of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which is launched on March 11.

Meanwhile, two American astronauts -- Peggy Whitson, the only woman onboard, and Leland Melvin -- celebrated their respective 48 and 44th birthdays onboard.

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