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 Schlegel and American astronaut Rex Walheim donned their spacesuits and were preparing to install a new nitrogen tank on the space station.
In a series of broadcast interviews Tuesday, Schlegel said he was feeling great but was a little anxious about his first venture outside the safe confines of the cabin. He refused to say what had been ailing him, insisting "medical issues are private."
NASA and European Space Agency officials stressed there were no changes to Wednesday's 6 1/2-hour spacewalk on Schlegel's behalf, and that he would do everything just as he'd practiced before last week's launch. No one was opposed to his going outside to perform the strenuous spacewalking work, officials said.
The crew began preparing for the spacewalk after waking up to Jimmy Buffett's "Oysters and Pearls," which opens with lyrics about Charles Lindbergh's historic solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic.
It was played for Atlantis' pilot, Alan Poindexter, who will coordinate Wednesday's spacewalk from inside the station.
"We're looking forward to a great day on orbit and a great (spacewalk) and having Rex and Hans out the door here real soon," Poindexter said.
Schlegel, 56, said Tuesday he backed NASA's decision to pull him off the first spacewalk because of his illness and delay Columbus' hookup by a day, even though it was a bitter pill.
"Nobody could have been happier than me when we finished (Monday's spacewalk) with the major objectives all done," he said.
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 Schlegel and the nine other space travelers spent Tuesday opening up the $2 billion Columbus lab and getting its equipment running. They were continuing that work Wednesday.
The astronauts -- wearing goggles to guard against floating dust, metal chips or other debris
-- opened up floor panels to get to the equipment underneath, and turned on computers, heaters and fans. A few of the systems had startup trouble, but that's normal for a brand-new piece of hardware, NASA managers said.
The European space station program manager, Alan Thirkettle, said it was thrilling to see astronauts inside Columbus, which was immaculate and brilliantly white.
"They're doing the first thing that the crew does, which is to make a complete mess of what was a beautiful piece of clean hardware inside," Thirkettle joked.
Atlantis will remain at the space station until at least Sunday. NASA is considering keeping the shuttle there an extra day.
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On the Net:
NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/
[Associated
Press; By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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