Revision 179132 of "Spacelab" on enwiki

[[Image:Sunrise over Spacelab.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Spacelab in payload bay during STS-90]]

'''Spacelab''' is a [[microgravity]] laboratory flown into space on the [[Space Shuttle]]. It consists of a large cylindrical main laboratory that is flown in the rear of the Space Shuttle cargo bay, connected to the crew compartment by a long tube. The laboratory had an outer diameter of 4.06 m, and each segment a length of 2.7 m. Most of the time two segments were used, thus it had a total length of 5.4 m.

In April 1973 [[NASA]] and the [[ESA]] (then known as the ESRO) agreed to build a modular science package. Construction of Spacelab started in [[1974]] by the [[Entwicklungsring Nord|ERNO]] (represented by [[VFW-Fokker GmbH]], later bought by [[Messerschmitt|MBB]], and since 2003 part of [[EADS Space Transportation]]). The first lab, '''LM1''', was given to [[NASA]] free of charge in exchange for flight opportunities for European astronauts. A second lab, '''LM2''', was bought by [[NASA]] for its own needs. The system also included a system of external pallets for experiments in vacuum, built by [[British Aerospace]].

Spacelab was used in 25 shuttle flights, but was decommissioned in [[1998]] - science work was supposed to be moved to the [[International Space Station]] and [[Spacehab]] module, a smaller version of Spacelab. The palette was recommissioned in 2002 for flight on [[STS-99]], and future use is likely.

== Spacelab missions ==

* [[STS-9]], Spacelab 1, November [[1983]], LM1
* [[STS-51-B]], Spacelab 3, April [[1985]], LM1
* [[STS-51-F]], Spacelab 2, July [[1985]], Palette
* [[STS-61-A]], Spacelab D1, October [[1985]], LM2
* [[STS-35]], ASTRO-1, December [[1990]], Palette
* [[STS-40]], SLS-1, June [[1991]], LM1
* [[STS-42]], IML-1, January [[1992]], LM2
* [[STS-45]], ATLAS-1, March [[1992]], Palette
* [[STS-50]], USML-1, June [[1992]], LM1
* [[STS-47]], Spacelab-J, September [[1992]], LM2
* [[STS-56]], ATLAS-2, April [[1993]], Palette
* [[STS-55]], Spacelab D2, April [[1993]], LM1
* [[STS-58]], SLS-2, October [[1993]], LM2
* [[STS-59]], SRL-1, April [[1994]], Palette
* [[STS-65]], IML-2, July [[1994]], LM1
* [[STS-68]], SRL-2, October [[1994]], Palette
* [[STS-66]], ATLAS-3, November [[1994]], Palette
* [[STS-67]], ASTRO-2, March [[1995]], Palette
* [[STS-71]], Spacelab-Mir, June [[1995]], LM2
* [[STS-73]], USML-2, October [[1995]], LM1
* [[STS-78]], LMS, June [[1996]], LM2
* [[STS-83]], MSL-1, April [[1997]], LM1
* [[STS-94]], MSL-1R, July [[1997]], LM1
* [[STS-90]], Neurolab, April [[1998]], LM2
* [[STS-99]], SRTM, February [[2000]], Palette

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