Spacelab: A New Tool for Cooperative Research

Abstract

The Space Shuttle will enable large payloads to be placed in earth-orbit at lower costs than previously possible, due to the re-usability of the shuttle vehicle and the booster rockets. Many uses are envisaged for this vehicle, since the orbits achievable by the shuttle are suitable for a variety of tasks, including the first step in placing payloads into higher orbits, or for escaping from the earth entirely, and voyaging to more distant parts of the solar system. For work in earth orbit, the European Space Agency, ESA, in cooperation with NASA, has developed a flexible laboratory system called Space- lab, which will fit into the Space Shuttle, perform its assigned operations in earth orbit, for 7–28 days, and will then be returned and refitted for further flights. This flexible system will be made widely available after 1980 through both reimbursable and cooperative arrangements. Spacelab will offer some novel features for performing research into the behavior and properties of the neutral and ionized atmosphere, but will require a fresh approach in order to take full advantage of these new capabilities and to reduce the costs and lead-times now associated with space research, so that space research may be opened up to a much larger user community.