Word: spacelabs
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...crew also saw an abundance of less spectacular stuff during the first half of their planned seven-day mission: a literal flood of foul-smelling particles of food and feces spewing from the pens of 24 rats and two squirrel monkeys in the $1 billion, 15-ton, European- built Spacelab stowed in Challenger's cargo bay. So pervasive was the odiferous tide that it was carried through a connecting tunnel into the shuttle's cockpit. "This isn't very much fun, guys," complained Commander Robert Overmyer to Mission Control...
...numbers" precision only a master pilot like John Young, 53, America's premier astronaut, can muster. For seven hours and 50 minutes before that landing, however, flight controllers worked frantically hi Houston to get Young, his five crewmates and their prize scientific cargo, the European-built $1 billion Spacelab, safely back to earth. During the unscheduled extension of the 166-orbit flight, the shuttle's longest, some California radio stations had even begun speculating ominously that the ship might become marooned in space...
These new headaches demonstrated once again that the shuttle is still very much an experimental vehicle. Even so, NASA could take pride in the debut of Spacelab and the new breed of payload specialists-scientists from outside the regular astronaut corps, including one West German researcher-who managed its heavy load of 72 experiments. The space agency noted that more than 90% of the studies had been completed. If the scientific data transmitted from orbit in just a single burst were lined up as small, text-size electronic symbols, one official calculated, they would extend from the earth...
Despite the rash of mishaps and irritations, the scientist-astronauts seemed pleased with the gleaming celestial laboratory. Said Lichtenberg, a biomedical engineer from M.I.T.: "It's just an amazing vehicle. Spacelab lives up to all its expectations." In one experiment involving a pallet instrument called a spectrophotometer, the scientists succeeded in making the first measurements of deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen, in the upper atmosphere. By such observations, scientists can study weather patterns on earth. They can also explore the history of distant worlds, since the presence of large quantities of deuterium is a sign that a planet...
...Europeans, Spacelab's performance was a welcome change after years of delays. Some Europeans talked of joining the U.S. in creating a permanent orbital station. NASA Chief James Beggs promoted that project last week at a meeting with President Reagan and his Cabinet, with no immediate results. Nothing, however, dampened NASA's cheer. At week's end it was so pleased with Spacelab that it decided to extend the shuttle's record-breaking nine-day mission by 24 hours. -By Frederic Golden. Reported by Jerry Hannifin and Geoffrey Leavenworth/Houston