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Columbus had been mated to the International Space Station (ISS) in February 2008 and it is working since then nearly flawlessly. Operation of the European Laboratory requires the coordination of different and relocated operational and support centers. Especially, module system level activities, related to functional operation of the ECLSS and TCS subsystems require a multidisciplinary and well coordinated task management between the NASA Houston Space Center, the European Columbus Control Center, the ALTEC/TAS-I and the Astrium Bremen Engineering Support Centers (ESC). The present paper concentrates on the lessons learned during the last year of module operation with emphasis on TCS and ECLSS related activities (e.g. nominal operations, anomaly resolutions, troubleshooting and maintenance activities).

Columbus has been delivered to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in summer 2006 for final integration, test and mission preparation. In the frame of these “last” phase activities also the Active Thermal Control System (ATCS) had to be finalized and prepared for the launch resp. mission. Due to unexpected late failures resp. malfunctions detected on component/unit level of the ATCS, refurbishment, integration / exchange of the relevant components and re-testing of their system level functions had to be done. Moreover, the still outstanding system level fluid leakage test of the ATCS had to be revised and completed. In addition to the required late refurbishment, integration and test activities, in certain cases also operational workarounds had to be evaluated. They should help to cope with similar contingency situations during operation of the ATCS on-orbit.