"It's a sight that everybody in Europe has been looking forward to for a long time."

Those were the words of Alan Thirkettle of the European Space Agency, speaking with reporters after the Columbus science lab was firmly attached to the outside of the International Space Station.

The European Space Agency has been waiting for 16 years to see its main contribution to the space station take its place in outer space. Columbus was reportedly ready to go up in 1992.

It's named for Christopher Columbus, and it was supposed to help mark the 500th anniversary of his journey to what became the Americas, in 1492.

But construction delays on the space station itself and a series of problems at NASA forced the Europeans to wait and wait and wait.

After an 8-hour spacewalk Monday by American astronauts Rex Walheim and Stan Love, French astronaut Leopold Eyharts was given the honor of fixing Columbus to its proper place, on the outside the space station's Harmony module.

"Houston and Munich, the European Columbus laboratory module is now part of the International Space Station," Eyharts happily announced, as people watched at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and at a European space facility in Germany.

This morning, Eyharts was given the privilege of being the first astronaut to venture inside Columbus, according to the Associated Press. Armed with a flashlight, he checked everything out, and announced that the lab appeared to be in good shape.

German astronaut Hans Schlegel was supposed to take part in Monday's spacewalk. But he got sick en route to the space station, while on board the space shuttle Atlantis.

NASA refused to tell reporters exactly what was wrong with Schlegel, except to say the illness was not life-threatening. And the Associated Press reported Tuesday morning that Schlegel would participate as scheduled in Wednesday's spacewalk, unless flight surgeons object.

Love was Schlegel's last-minute replacement. The spacewalk was pushed back from Sunday to Monday because of the change.

Walheim has been on spacewalks before, but for Love, this was a first.

"Wow," he said as he looked out at space from outside the space station. "Awesome."

The spacewalk took 90 minutes longer than it was supposed to. According to the Houston Chronicle, it took Walheim and Love longer than expected to attach heater cables to Columbus.

Columbus' size may also have made the installation process longer. It weighs 14 tons, which is a lot, even in the weightless atmosphere of space.

It took approximately six hours to prepare Columbus to be removed from Atlantis' cargo bay. After all the preparations were finished, astronauts on the inside of the space station used a robotic arm to lift Columbus out of the cargo bay and into its proper place.

"Bring it home," Walheim said, cheering them on. "Way to go."

Two more spacewalks are scheduled during Atlantis' current mission.

On Wednesday, Walheim and Schlegel were scheduled to do more work on Columbus' exterior, according to the Associated Press. They were also supposed to replace a nitrogen tank on the outside of the space station.

The third spacewalk is scheduled for Friday.

The astronauts were expected to hold a formal "grand opening" ceremony for Columbus on Tuesday afternoon.