Word: spacelab
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...looks like an outsize Thermos bottle. But the oddly configured contraption, nestled in the big cargo bay of the space shuttle, represents a giant step into the cosmos. When Columbia roars off its Florida pad on Monday morning, Nov. 28, it will be carrying the billion-dollar Spacelab, the first true scientific research station in orbit...
...miles) more than any previous flight. Columbia's six-man crew will be the largest to fly aboard the shuttle and will include the first non-American astronaut. But clearly the highlight of the trip will be the debut of the 33,252-lb. Spacelab. It represents the first real marriage of space engineering to fundamental scientific research in the manned space effort. Says Spacelab Mission Manager Harry Craft: "We are reaching a major milestone in the space program...
...test flight, Spacelab will contain some 70 experiments designed by scientists from the U.S., Western Europe, Canada and Japan. Among them: a French experiment that will measure the radiation produced by sunlight's action on hydrogen; a West German high-resolution camera that will map the earth's surface; a U.S. study that may help explain the life cycle of stars and galaxies. Other tests will determine the advantages of fabricating specialized terrestrial materials (crystals, alloys, ceramics) in conditions of weightlessness rather than on earth. There are also studies to see how humble forms of life adapt...
...Spacelab was built in West Germany under the auspices of the eleven-member European Space Agency (ESA). Packed with everything from computers to miniature automated factories, it is a major advance over Skylab, the U.S.'s first scientific work station in orbit, which was occupied by three successive teams of astronauts in the early 1970s. Spacelab is also considerably more sophisticated than the current Salyut 7, which the Soviets hint may be the first building block of a larger orbital station. Spacelab's uniqueness lies in the versatility of its three major components: 1) two cylindrically shaped laboratories...
Like pieces of an exquisitely machined Erector set, these parts can be fitted together in different ways. For its debut next week, Spacelab has been configured in what designers call its "long module": the two cylinders have been mated to form one continuous workshop, about 13 ft. in diameter and 23 ft. in length. Positioned between the extended cylinder and the shuttle's tail assembly is a single pallet, holding 18 experiments, involving such equipment as cosmic-ray detectors, spectrometers and TV cameras. On future flights, as the experimental load increases, the tunnel can be lengthened and additional pallets...