STS-135 T-7 Days - Early Shuttle Missions - 1981 - 1986

Cutaway view of SpaceLab deployment

The shuttle immediately started proving it's versatility.  Between the first launch in 1981 and early 1986, it was launched 24 times among the four orbiters.  The Europeans created a modular experiment platform called Spacelab.  When assembled in the Orbiter payload bay it could include 1-5 external experiment pallets for external equipment and experiments.  Some of these could be replaced with one or two habitable modules for interior experiments.  The photos show a configuration with two pallets and two habitable modules. 

Inside of a Spacelab habitable module.

The pallets held equipment like telescopes, radiation detector, and other equipment investigating the environment of space.  The habitable modules did biological and materials science tests that assessed the micro gravity effects on things.  The Orbiter had a lot of interior space, so some missions only included the pallets and they were controlled from inside the Orbiter.  Space lab components would be sent to space on 25 missions before being replace by the International Space Station.  We learned about space laboratories.

The 11th mission demonstrated the benefit of a spacecraft able to send people to space and return objects back to Earth.  STS-41-C was sent up with two primary tasks.  First was to launch a Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) that would spend over five years in orbit running experiments to be returned on a future mission.  The size of a school bus, the LDEF housed 57 experiments related to  manufacturing, propulsion, science, and electronics.

Astronauts repair the captured SMS Satellite

Once the LDEF was launched, the Orbiter maneuvered to the Solar Max satellite, that needed repairs.  The plan was for the astronaut to attach a tether to the satellite then bring it into the payload bat for repairs.  But, when the astronaut touched it to attach the tether, it started gyrating out of control.  We still had a lot to be learned about working in space.  Even though the satellite was able to be restored to control, the lessons were not forgotten.  In the second try, the astronaut was able harness it, bring it into the payload bay, make the repairs and release it.  We were now proving we could work in space.  The capabilities to work in space and the value of that was being proven.

By 1986, Sherry and I had moved to Massachusetts and toddlers Andy and Julia as the center of our life.  The Betamax had turned into the VCR.  Early versions permitted it to be carried as a shoulder bag connected to a large separate video camera.  I need to dig out the early video tapes of Andy and Julia.  Mike and I were busy building a new phone system that used a network called Token Ring to connect computers. The system could connect a computer terminal to other devices at a whopping 9600 bits per second.  Fast and progressive for the era. By comparison, my PC connection today is 100  mega bits per second.  10,000 times faster.  The computer age was coming, but we were still infants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacelab