Spacelab layout showing tunnel, pressurized Module and Pallet

The Spacelab Pallet is a U-shaped platform for mounting instrumentation, large instruments, experiments requiring exposure to space, and instruments requiring a large field of view, such as telescopes.

A Spacelab Pallet was recommissioned in 2002 for flight on STS-99.

A Spacelab Pallet was handed over to the Museum for permanent display on 5 March 2010.

Endeavour also saw the recommissioning of the Spacelab Pallet system, used for experiments in vacuum.

Parazynski had responsibility for a number of on-orbit activities including operation of the ATLAS experiments and Spacelab Pallet, as well as several secondary experiments in the crew cabin.

STS-51-F ( also known as Spacelab 2 ) was the nineteenth flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger.

A special part of the modular Spacelab system, the " igloo ", which was located at head of a three-pallet train, provided on-site support to instruments mounted on pallets.

The main mission objective was to verify performance of Spacelab systems, determine the interface capability of the orbiter, and measure the environment created by the spacecraft.

Despite mission replanning necessitated by Challenger < nowiki >'</ nowiki > s abort to orbit trajectory, the Spacelab mission was declared a success.

The Spacelab Infrared Telescope ( IRT ) was also flown on the mission.

At this point Columbia was joined by Challenger, which performed the next three shuttle missions, while Columbia underwent modifications for the first Spacelab mission.

In 1983, Columbia, under the command of John Young for his sixth spaceflight, undertook its second operational mission ( STS-9 ), in which the Spacelab science laboratory and a six-person crew was carried, including the first non-American astronaut on a space shuttle, Ulf Merbold.

Its ample size — much greater than that of the shuttle alone, or even the shuttle plus Spacelab — was enough, with some modifications, for up to seven astronauts of both sexes, and experiments needing a long duration in space ; even a movie projector for recreation was possible.

Another proposal was based on the Spacelab habitation modules, which provided 32 seats in the payload bay in addition to those in the cockpit area.

He was selected as one of four payload specialists for Spacelab 2 on August 9, 1978, and after seven years of training he flew on STS-51-F / Spacelab-2.

With a permanent space station as an objective, the Space Shuttle was developed as a reusable transportation vehicle, and with it came Spacelab and other experimental activities making use of the Shuttle ’ cargo bay.

MSFC was also responsible for Spacelab, the research facility carried in the Shuttle's cargo bay on certain flights.

* Spacelab 1 was flown on STS-9, launched November 28, 1983.

Spacelab was a reusable laboratory used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle.

Construction of Spacelab was started in 1974 by the ERNO ( daughter of VFW-Fokker GmbH, after merger with MBB named MBB / ERNO, and since 2003 part of EADS SPACE Transportation ).

On spaceflight where a habitable module was not flown, but pallets were flown, a pressurized cylinder known as the igloo carried the subsystems needed to operate the Spacelab equipment.

An igloo component was flown on Spacelab 2, Astro-1, ATLAS-1, ATLAS-2, ATLAS-3, and Astro-2.

Science work was to be moved to the International Space Station and Spacehab module, a pressurized carrier similar to the Spacelab Module.

The " Spacelab Pallet-Deployable 1 ( SLP-D1 ) with Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, Dextre " was launched on STS-123.

" Spacelab Pallet-Deployable 2 ( SLP-D2 )" was scheduled for STS-127.

STS-9 ( also known as STS-41A and Spacelab 1 ) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission which carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit.

This was the first dedicated Spacelab mission under the direction of the German Aerospace Research Establishment ( DFVLR ) and the first U. S. mission in which payload control was transferred to a foreign country ( German Space Operations Center, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany ).

The European Space Agency ( ESA ) in June 1974 named a consortium headed by ERNO-VFW-Fokker GmbH to build pressurized modules for Spacelab.

In addition, Japan funded a Spacelab for STS-47, a dedicated mission.

In early 1990, MSFC's new Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center took over the responsibility for controlling all Spacelab missions.

The Center also received responsibility for Spacelab, a versatile laboratory that would be carried on some flights within the Shuttle's cargo bay.

Other Spacelab elements include the tunnel, and the Instrument Pointing System ( IPS ) tailored to the pallet interfaces for precise pointing to space or earth targets.

Funding for Spacelab 1 was provided by ESA.

From 1984 to 1985, he participated in the preparation of the first German Spacelab mission, D-1, and served as backup payload specialist for STS-61-A as well as " Crew Interface Coordinator ".

The following year he was Science Coordinator for the second German Spacelab mission, D-2 ( STS-55 ).

It again carried the DFI package, as well as the OSTA-l payload – named for the NASA Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications – which consisted of a number of remote-sensing instruments mounted on a Spacelab pallet in the payload bay.

In addition, in its payload bay, Columbia again carried the DFI package, and OSS-l ( named for the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications ) which consisted of a number of instruments mounted on a Spacelab pallet, intended to obtain data on the near-Earth environment and the extent of contamination caused by the orbiter itself.

From 1988 to 1990, he completed basic training at the German German Aerospace Center, and was then nominated to be in the prime crew for the second German Spacelab mission.

Another of the Spacelab experiments was the Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus ( GBA ), a device for processing biological materials.

The European Space Agency ESA in June 1974 named a consortium headed by ERNO-VFW Fokker ( Zentralgesellschaft VFW-Fokker GmbH ) to build pressurized modules for Spacelab.