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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.
List of contents
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.
About the author
Since 1992, Evans has written extensively for the magazines
Spaceflight, Countdown, Astronomy Now, Astronomy, All About Space and
BBC Sky at Night Magazine. Evans is currently the senior writer for the website AmericaSpace.com, where he covers space history, launches and International Space Station news. He has written numerous previous books for the Springer-Praxis imprint, including
NASA's Voyager Missions (2003),
Space Shuttle Columbia (2005),
Space Shuttle Challenger (2006), and
The Space Shuttle (2021). He also wrote a six-volume
History of Human Space Exploration, published between 2009 to 2014.
Report
"The Spacelab Story is as comprehensive a book as can be written in a one-volume work on Spacelab. It covers every mission and its accomplishments. More than that, the book explores the personalities involved-the people that flew and supported the missions. It explores the politics involved and the legacy of the program. ... it is rewarding." (Mark Lardas, National Space Society, nss.org, May 30, 2024)
