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Spacelab Operations Planning
Thomas J. Lee
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Abstract
The Spacelab design requirements which have been jointly developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) were strongly influenced by two primary considerations: (1) an attempt to satisfy as many of the low Earth orbit scientific and application user's requirements as practical utilizing the Shuttle launch vehicle; and (2) the necessity to have an efficient and economical mode of operation. ESA has adhered to these considerations in their design and development program while NASA has adhered to these considerations in the planning for the Spacelab operations in the 1980's. This paper presents a summary of the NASA planning in the areas of ground, launch, and flight operations and experiment integration to effectively operate the Spacelab.
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