The spacelab experience: a synopsis.

The Spacelab 1 mission, a joint venture of the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration took place during the period 28 November through 8 December 1983. An overview of the first flight of the orbiting laboratory is presented here. The payload crew members' view of Spacelab operations and results of the scientific investigations carried out on this mission are presented in the following reports.

Space plasma physics: space experiments with particle accelerators.

Electron and plasma beams and neutral gas plumes were injected into the space environment by instruments on Spacelab 1, and various diagnostic measurements including television camera observations were performed. The results yield information on vehicle charging and neutralization, beam-plasma interactions, and ionization enhancement by neutral beam injection.

Spacelab-1: an early space station for science and technology.

The first flight of Spacelab is primarily a system verification and test flight, but it will also carry a payload of scientific and technological experiments to demonstrate the capability of performing multidisciplinary research in space. The payload covers the disciplines atmospheric physics, plasma physics, solar observations, astronomy, Earth observations, and material and life sciences. In this paper we will give for all represented disciplines short discription of their scientific objectives and experimental techniques. Particular emphasis is placed on how different disciplines utilize features characteristic for manned space stations, such as weight and power capabilities the availability of a human operator, the microgravity environment, the possibility to return samples or recordings and the recoverability of hardware together with a reflight capability. These advantages will be reviewed against the background of the relatively short mission duration, safety requirements and environmental influences caused by the presence of men in space. We will identify a research scenario for which Spacelab offers distinct advantages compared to conventional free-flying satellites, one which might also be pursued from larger space stations in the future.