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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

The U.S. Space Shuttle, which entered service in 1981, is the most succesful spacecraft ever developed. Although it was conceived as a reusable spacecraft to provide cheap access to low Earth orbit, and to supersede expendable launch vehicles, serving as the National Space Transportation System, it now coexists with a new range of commercial rockets.

In The Space Shuttle: Roles, Missions And Accomplishments, David Harland explains, for the first time, the scientific contribution that the Space Shuttle has made to the international space programme. He focuses on the utility of the Space Shuttle instead of its development and, rather than employ a mission log format, each chapter is devoted to a specific type of operation, and the missions are discussed in this context.

The book begins with a review of the origins of the Space Shuttle, and summaries of ground facilities and early test flights. Succeeding chapters are devoted to satellite operations (including deployment and retrieval of commercial satellites, TDRS, tethered satellites and free flyers); the Great Observatories (including the Hubble Space Telescope); solar system probes deployed from the Shuttle cargo bay; earth sciences missions; life sciences and microgravity research (including Spacelab and Spacehab); and Department of Defense missions.

The Challenger accident and its consequences are reviewed in detail, and there are chapters describing the Shuttle's role in supporting the American presence on the Russian Mir Space Station, and in facilitating the assembly in orbit of the International Space Station. After discussing possible future developments, the book concludes with tables of mission statistics, crews and payloads, and a comprehensive Glossary and Bibliography. This book serves as a companion to the author's The Mir Space Station: A Precursor to Space Colonization.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Table of Contents.

-Foreword.

-Author's Preface.

-Acknowledgements.

-List of Illustrations, Maps and Tables.

-Part 1: Operations.

-1. Origins.
-2. Shuttle Operations.
-3. Communications Satellites.
-4. No Mission Too Difficult.
-5. The Darker Side.

-Part 2: Weightlesness.

-6. Materials Processing.
-7. Facilities for Commercial Research.
-8. Biology.

-Part 3: Exploration.

-9. The Hubble Space Telescope.
-10. The Gamma Ray Observatory.
-11. Spacelabs and Free-flyers.
-12. Forthcoming Attractions.
-13. Galileo's Ordeal.
-14. Dante's Inferno.
-15. Magellan's Triumph.
-16. Home Planet.

-Part 4: Outpost.

-17. Unexpected Opportunity.
-18. An Island in the Sky.

-Part 5: Conclusions.

-19. The Evolving Role.

-Shuttle Mission Log.

-Glossary.

-Bibliography.

-Index.