Between 1983 and 1998, Spacelab provided NASA with a vital short-term laboratory in space. Across more than a dozen missions, Spacelab's pressurized research modules and science pallets supported hundreds of experiments from the life to microgravity sciences, from Earth science to astrophysics and from materials processing to fluid dynamics.

For the first time, The Spacelab Story sheds light on all the Spacelab missions that served as pathfinders for the eventual International Space Station, along with all the flights that never came to be. The book chronicles over two decades of service and international partnership with Germany, Japan, Canada, Russia, the member-states of the European Space Agency and others.

The very same international co-operation that led to Spacelab's genesis also conspired to create its end. Science writer Ben Evans chronicles this tumultuous history, showing how, as tensions between the superpowers cooled in the 1990s and the Shuttle cameto be increasingly used to fly joint missions to Mir, many Spacelab missions were delayed and eventually cancelled.

This book is a must-read for anybody interested in the science conducted aboard the Shuttle, the experimental precursors of the ISS, and the international politics surrounding NASA's pioneering space endeavors.

Chronicles the entire history of the Spacelab program Explores the international politics and parternships that influenced Spacelab science Traces each Spacelab mission in depth and shows how the program contributed to the eventual ISS

Autorentext

Ben Evans is an accomplished and experienced space writer ideally qualified to chronicle the epic story of human space exploration. In addition to writing five books for Springer/Praxis, including the first book in this series: Escaping the Bonds of Earth: The Fifties and Sixties (2009) and the most recent Foothold in the Heavens - The Seventies (2010), he has published numerous space and astronomy related articles in such journals as Spaceflight, Countdown, and Astronomy Now.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Unequal partners.- Chapter 2. A difficult path to First Flights.- Chapter 3. Verification Flight Test One.- Chapter 4. Verification Flight Test Two.- Chapter 5. Of monkeys, mice and men.- Chapter 6. Deutschland-Eins.- Chapter 7. Stargazers.- Chapter 8. Earthgazers.- Chapter 9. X-SAR-Crossed Lovers.- Chapter 10. Mission for Japan.- Chapter 11. Mission for Italy.- Chapter 12. In the absence of gravitas.- Chapter 13. The human factor.