Spacelab Program Preparations for First Flight and Projected Utilization

The initial flight of the European built Spacelab Pressure Module will introduce to the Space Transportation System capability a shirt sleeve laboratory environment that will serve a broad range of Science and Technology users. This paper provides a brief description of the maiden mission and a status report on the preparations for that mission. The planned utilization of the European provided Spacelab hardware, as reflected by the Spacelab Mission Manifest, will be discussed along with plans for developing dedicated discipline laboratories, a mixed cargo Spacelab pallet system and a capability for opportunity payloads and experiments.