Introduction

Abstract

When the space shuttle Columbia climbed out over the Atlantic from Cape Canaveral on 28 November 1983 the European space programme, which had been perilously close to collapse a decade earlier, came of age. Riding in the shuttle’s cargo bay was Spacelab, an $800 million laboratory designed, built and funded by Western Europe in its first venture into manned research in orbit. Also aboard was West Germany’s first astronaut, 42-year-old physicist Ulf Merbold, who, along with the rest of the six-man crew, was to put the laboratory through its paces for the next ten days, delighting mission control by completing an exhausting schedule of experiments with barely a hitch. The flight marked a significant leap forward in Europe’s bid to establish itself as a serious space power, confirming Spacelab’s versatility and inspiring scientists back on Earth to dream of an eventual permanent European manned presence in space.