The commercial development of space is one of NASA's objectives as directed by legislation and national policy during the past decade. NASA's Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology (OACT) supports this objective primarily through the implementation of a significant level of flight activity. A large part of this activity involves payloads that require flight accommodations that are identified as 'middeck-class.' Mission experience has shown that the middeck of the Shuttle Orbiter has unique payload support capabilities and is a very cost-effective location to conduct crew-tended microgravity research, especially for those activities in the critical area of biotechnology. The middeck mode of accommodations emphasizes simple interfaces and timely flight opportunities. Such accommodations best meet the needs of most commercial development of space activities where the investment constraints are severe, and low cost flight systems are typically involved. However, the main purpose of the Shuttle Orbiter middeck is to support crew and operational requirements. Growing demands to support the various NASA programs in addition to Shuttle operational requirements has made needed middeck accommodations increasingly difficult to obtain. To help relieve this situation, NASA initiated a procurement in February 1990 (through the Johnson Space Center) for the services of a Commercial Middeck Augmentation Module (CMAM) to provide additional accommodations for crew-tended payloads as an extension of the middeck into the Orbiter cargo bay. In November 1990, NASA awarded the CMAM contract to SPACEHAB, Inc., of Arlington, Va. for the lease, over several flights, of their SPACEHAB Space Research Laboratories - pressurized modules in the Shuttle cargo bay for crew- tended activities. This service contract also calls for SPACEHAB to provide analytical, physical, and operational integration of flight hardware, and integration support, such as safety documentation and crew training. SPACEHAB, Inc., is a privately financed corporation - established in 1983 - engaged in the design, development, manufacture, marketing and leasing of their modules to offer investigators a timely and relatively low-cost access to a "crew-tended" space environment.


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    Titel :

    Prelaunch Mission Operation Report for the STS-60 Flight in Support of the Commercial Middeck Augmentation Module (CMAM) Contract


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1994


    Format / Umfang :

    28 pages


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch