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English: A diagram showing the payload bay configuration for STS-107, the twenty-eighth and final flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102). In view (from left to right) are the SPACEHAB access tunnel, the SPACEHAB Research Double Module, the FREESTAR and OARE experiments (mounted to a Hitchhiker Multipurpose Equipment Support Structure), and the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) pallet.
Berthing of spacecraft can be traced at least as far back as the berthing of payloads into the Space Shuttle payload bay. [10] Such payloads could be either free-flying spacecraft captured for maintenance/return, or payloads temporarily exposed to the space environment at the end of the Remote Manipulator System .
The satellite designs also required that the Space Shuttle have a 4.6 by 18 m (15 by 60 ft) payload bay. NASA evaluated the F-1 and J-2 engines from the Saturn rockets , and determined that they were insufficient for the requirements of the Space Shuttle; in July 1971, it issued a contract to Rocketdyne to begin development on the RS-25 engine.
The collection of Shuttle subsystems and components used to hold and manipulate items in the payload bay, especially items for which flight release (or mating) was planned. Elements included the Shuttle RMS, Payload Retention Latch Assemblies, Grapple Fixtures, Targets, and a CCTV system. See the Payload Bay User's Guide (NASA/NSTS, 2011).
The combined space station and Air Force payload requirements were not sufficient to reach desired shuttle launch rates. Therefore, the plan was for all future U.S. space launches—space stations, Air Force, commercial satellites, and scientific research—to use only the Space Shuttle. Most other expendable boosters would be phased out.
A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initially berthed to the Unity and later the Harmony module on the ISS. Once attached, supplies were ...
On 26 October 2007, the station's Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) removed Harmony from the shuttle cargo bay and temporarily mated it to the port side of Unity and, on 27 October 2007, the crew entered in Harmony. [6] [26] After the Space Shuttle departed, Harmony was relocated to the forward dock of the Destiny laboratory.
Space art for the Spacelab 2 mission, showing some of the various experiments in the payload bay. Tony England drinks soda in space. A view of the Sierra Nevada mountains and surroundings from Earth orbit, taken on the STS-51-F mission. STS-51-F's primary payload was the laboratory module Spacelab 2.