page_title: Spacelab
section_title: Habitable module
hierarchical_section_title: Spacelab / Components / Habitable module
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside the Spacelab Science Module, the crewmembers of STS-71, Mir- 18, and Mir-19 pose for the traditional inflight picture. An important mission for the human spaceflight program, STS-71 was the 100th U.S. human space launch from Cape Canaveral at Kennedy Space Center. Internationally significant as well, STS-71 was the first U.S. Space Shuttle- Russian Space Station Mir docking and joint on-orbit operation. The Space Shuttle/Mir combination was also the largest space platform ever assembled and put into orbit. (For individual identification, hold picture vertically with the socked feet of Anatoly Y. Solovyev at bottom center). Clockwise from Solovyev are Gregory J. Harbaugh, Robert L. Gibson, Charles J. Precourt, Nikolai M. Budarin, Ellen S. Baker, Bonnie J. Dunbar, Norman E. Thagard, Gennadiy M. Strekalov (angle) and Vladimir N. Dezhurov.
context_page_description: Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by ESA and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier and other related hardware housed in the Shuttle's cargo bay. The components were arranged in various configurations to meet the needs of each spaceflight.
  Spacelab components flew on a total of about 32 Shuttle missions, depending on how such hardware and missions are tabulated. Spacelab allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit. There was a variety of Spacelab-associated hardware, so a distinction can be made between the major Spacelab program missions with European scientists running missions in the Spacelab habitable module, missions running other Spacelab hardware experiments, and other STS missions that used some component of Spacelab hardware. There is some variation in counts of Spacelab missions, in part because there were different types of Spacelab missions with a large range in the amount of Spacelab hardware flown and the nature of each mission.
context_section_description: The Spacelab Module comprises a cylindrical main laboratory configurable as Short or Long Module flown in the rear of the Space Shuttle cargo bay, connected to the crew compartment by a tunnel.  The laboratory had an outer diameter of 4.12 meters (13.5 ft), and each segment a length of 2.7 meters (8.9 ft). Most of the time two segments were used in forming the Long Module configuration.
  A pressurized tunnel connected the Space Shuttle orbiter main cabin to Spacelab Habitable Module(s), with a connection point at the mid-deck. There were two different length tunnels depending on the location of the HM in the payload bay. When the Habitable Module was not used, but additional space was needed for support equipment another structure called the Igloo could be used.
  The larger configuration of the Habitation module consisted of the Core module and Experiment module. It was also possible to operate Spacelab experiments from the Space Shuttle orbiter aft flight deck.
  Two habitable modules were built, named LM1 and LM2. LM1 is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum behind the Space Shuttle Discovery. LM2 was on display in the Bremenhalle exhibition in the Bremen Airport of Bremen, Germany from 2000 to 2010. It is residing in building 4c at the nearby Airbus Space and Defence plant since 2010 and can only be viewed during guided tours.
caption: Ten people inside the Spacelab Module in June 1995, celebrating the docking of the Space Shuttle and Mir
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