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Spacelab- the First Mission & Beyond The Space Congress® Proceedings 1984 (21st) New Opportunities In Space Apr 1st, 8:00 AM Spacelab- The First Mission & Beyond Edward James Technical Control Manager, Spacelab Division, Office of Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C, John Garnett Aeronautical Engineering Co-op, Space lab Division, Office of Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/space-congress-proceedings Scholarly Commons Citation James, Edward and Garnett, John, "Spacelab- The First Mission & Beyond" (1984). The Space Congress® Proceedings. 1. https://commons.erau.edu/space-congress-proceedings/proceedings-1984-21st/session-1/1 This Event is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Space Congress® Proceedings by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SPACELAB - THE FIHST MISSION .AND BEYOND Mr. Edward James Mr* John Garnett Technical Control Manager Aeronautical Engineering Co-op Spacelab Division Space lab Division Office of Space Flight Office of Space Flight NASA Headquarters NASA Headquarters Washington, D.C, Washington, D.C. ASTRACT scientists and to be able to tie in real time support from colleagues on The recent successful flight of the ground through satellite Spacelab 1 while being the comunicat ions, Also f by offering culmination of over 10 years of configuration flexibility and international cooperation is seen centralized support systems if as just the start of a new era in needed, a method of low cost orbital manned scientific operations in investigations could be established* orbit. This paper highlights the objectives and results of that first The Spacelab program began in mission, as well as describing the 1973 when nine European nations of international Spacelab program, its the free world agreed to build a concept, and its history. Then sortie laboratory that would be an looking to the future, the plans for integral part of the Space utilizing Spacelab, its versatility Tr an s por ti on S y s tem o f t he Un i t ed and potential to the science States. The 1nler gove rmen t a1 community and its continuing Agreement (IGA) was signed by the evolution are discussed. Plans for countries of Wes t Ge rman y, 11a1y f substantially improving the cost F panee, Uni t e d K ingdom, B e1g i urn, effectiveness of Spacelab are Spain., The Ne t h e r 1 and s, and t he examined including the use of Un i t e d S t a. t e s . Later i n. I i 7 5 » dedicated discipline laboratories An s t r i. a d e c i de d t o j o i n t he p p og r am * and small payload carriers. Finally, Th i s s i g n i n g b e g a n wh a t wa s. t o the paper evaluates the importance become t he 1a r gest i nte p nati ona1 of incorporating Spacelab c o o p e P a t i v e s p a c e y e n t u P e 1 n technology, concepts, lessons history. New man ag ernen t pos11i ons learned, and methodology into the and p p o c e d u r e s a s we 11 a s 1 i. n e s o f development and utilization of an c QUITO n i c a t i o n s b e t ween t h e v a P i on s international Space Station over the a g e n c i e s h a d t o b e c3 e v e 1 o p e d. Th e next decade. mone ta r y cont pibu ti on of the ten E u P o p e a n n a t i. o n s i s s h .i n f i f ti f c 1. INTRODUCTION The IGA i mp1 n t i ve agr e t, The concept of a manned th e Memorand urn of Und e r s t andIng laboratory in space began with the (MOU) between the National United States commitment to develop Aer onauti cs and Space ni stptt11 on a reusuable Space Shuttle. Seen as (NASA) and the European a means of expanding the Shuttle's Research Opganiztion (ESRO) also capability to conduct orbital signed. In 1975 ESRO science investigations, Spacelab was as the European Space Agency designed to be an integral part of (ISA). The"MOU assigned ISA the the Shuttle system. The programs task to d e ¥ e1 op, des i gn» major objectives were to provide manu t a ct u P e, and de1i ver to an frequent access for space engineering I » the fIpst investigations to qualified Sp ace1ab fIi ght u n11, and two s et s of Ground Support Equipment (GSE). specialists and scientists on the NASA was assigned the task of ground in conducting scientific supporting ESA and developing the experiments and analysis. operational capability of Spacelab including processing facilities, the transfer tunnel through which access Flexible System is provided between the Spacelab module and the orbiter, and By offering a number of software necessary for the interface different configurations, using between the Spacelab hardware and reusable hardware, a very flexible the Shuttle orbiter. The MOU also system could be established in which stipulated that the first Spacelab many types of missions could be flight would be a cooperative effort accomplished. Different levels of in that a European would be a member centralized support services, such of the crew and that both agencies as power, energy data storage and would provide experiments. A listing transmission are also offered to of the above responsibilities is accomodate various user shown in figure 2. From that requirements. These services are agreement, a parallel organizational summarized in figure 4. The team of both ESA and NASA management "Spacelab system" consists of two unique to Spacelab was developed, as major components; a pressurized shown in figure 3. laboratory module and an open pallet for mounting experiments for direct exposure to space, as shown in SPACELAB PROGRAM f igure 5. The module is by far the The aerospace community of largest of the systems and consists Europe saw the Spacelab program as a of either one or two cylindrical means of establishing a European sections. Each of these sections is foothold in manned space activities, 4.0 meters in diameter and 2.7 as until this point only two meters long. At both ends of the countries, the United States and segments are conical sections known Soviet Union, had cornnitted the as "end cones" which complete the resources and mastered the module. Thus, the "short module" technology required. This major consists of one section, the core undertaking would not only give the segment, and two end cones, while European Space Agency the the "long module" includes the core technological knowledge but would and experiment segments and the two also provide the managerial end cones, as shown in figure 6. experience for future endeavors. The module is pressurized to one atmosphere (14.7 psi), providing a From its very beginning, "shirt-sleeve" working Spacelab was designed to be a environment. Inside the module, manned, scientific laboratory. Even along each wall is a series of racks though scientific operations had which allow the placement of the been conducted in space since the necessary subsystems and various early 1960 f s, scientists desired the experiments and equipment. In the ability to follow their experiments top of each segment is a 1.5 meter personally in a micro-gravity or diameter flange that allows the space environment without having to installation of a scientific be trained as an astronaut. Also airlock, or a viewport assembly, or the desire existed to return the a high-quality window assembly as completed experiment hardware and the mission requirements dictate. specimens to Earth for more detailed Access to and from the module is analysis, as well as adjustment for gained by using a transfer tunnel, reflight* Spacelab provided a means which connects the middeck of the for direct involvement of in-orbit orbiter to the forward end cone of 1-2 the module. This tunnel is active Spacelab module in the Cargo available in two lengths to Bay of the Earth orbiting Space accomodate either the short or the Shuttle, Columbia, as shown in long module. figure 9A. The shuttle, with Spacelab still on board, landed at The second ^major component is Edwards Air Force Base, California, the pallet. This is a 4 meters wide on December 8, 1983, at 6:47 EST. by 3 meters long U-shaped structure This flight completed the first that includes hard points for flight of the joint United States mounting heavy experiments and large and European multi-disciplinary open panels along its length for payload and also served as the first lighter payloads, as shown in figure verification flight of the Spacelab 7. They may be flown singularly (up system. Figure 10 shows the VFT to 5 in the shuttle- cargo bay) or objectives. During the flight grouped together to form what is monitoring of the mission activities called a "pallet train". For pallet and analysis of data confirmed that only configurations, subsystem the eight VFT functional objectives equipment is stored in a pressurized were successfully achieved. cylinder known as an "igloo". The igloo is approximately 2.4 meters in The scientific experiments, height and 1.1 meters in diameter mounted in the module and on the and is mounted on the front of the pallet, as shown in figures 11-13, first pallet in the train.
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