TWIG - Chancellor Angela Merkel this week highlighted the vibrancy of Germany’s aerospace industry at ceremonies marking the completion of a high-tech space lab and the laying of the foundation stone of an aircraft engine maintenance facility.

In the northern port city of Bremen, Merkel Tuesday celebrated the successful completion of the Columbus space laboratory — Europe’s biggest single contribution to the International Space Station.

The lab, which will allow researchers to conduct a broad range of scientific experiments in the weightlessness of orbit, provides impressive proof of the German aerospace industry’s engineering prowess, Merkel said.

"It is a small, but important sector where a country like Germany, which is known as a land of high technology and cutting-edge science, stands up very, very well," she said.

The lab, which took 10 years to complete, will be shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida, later this the month, and is scheduled to be flown aboard a space shuttle to the station in the second half of 2007.

Once in orbit, the module’s operations will be managed from the new Columbus Control Center built outside of Munich in Oberpfaffenhofen.

Later the same day, Merkel’s high-tech tour continued as she traveled to the eastern German state of Thuringia to mark the laying of the foundation stone for an a new jet engine repair facility being built by German air carrier Lufthansa and British jet engine maker Rolls-Royce.

Together with Thuringia governor Dieter Althaus, Merkel emphasized the importance of the state-of-the-art installation for the industrial future of Thuringia and Germany.

"The fact that Rolls-Royce and Lufthansa have chosen to locate in Arnstadt underscores the international competitiveness of [Germany’s eastern states]," Merkel said.

Rolls Royce chose the town of Arnstadt, which lies about 150 miles northeast of Lufthansa’s main Frankfurt hub, in 2004, calling it "a location that could offer the best in logistics, a competitive cost structure and the potential for high-quality manpower."

German leaders cheered the move, which is expected to create hundreds of high-paying jobs in a region where unemployment stands at more than 15%.