Shuttle Lofts Flying Science Lab With Heaviest Payload So Far

Abstract

Stellar evolution. The immune response. Alloy processing. Orcadian rhythms. Plant and crystal growth. Stress physiology. Cosmic rays. Lubrication. Few, if any, research laboratories on Earth can boast investigations into these disparate and often unrelated specialties. But one laboratory, serenely floating some 150 miles above the planet's surface, can: Spacelab 1. Its launch last week aboard the space shuttle marked a major milestone in space flight and in the exploitation of space as a unique staging ground for investigations into everything from blood cells to galaxies. The nine-day Spacelab 1 mission on this ninth flight of the shuttle culminates a joint, decade-long effort of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration and the European Space Agency (ESA) to loft a reusable laboratory into space. ESA designed, developed, and built Spacelab with about $1 billion of its own funds. NASA's space ferry hoisted it into the sky. And both space agencies contributed to the scientific payload. That payload ...