Appendix 



Mir: Russian for "peace"; a six-port space station launched by the U.S.S.R. in 1986. 



National Aerospace Plane (NASP): A joint Department of Defense/NASA 

 program to develop and demonstrate the technologies required by a vehicle 

 powered by airbreathing engines that would have the capability to take off and 

 land horizontally on standard runways, cruise in the upper atmosphere at 

 hypersonic speed, and fly directly into low-Earth orbit. 



Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV): A spacecraft launched from the Shuttle 

 Orbiter or Space Station to deploy or return free-flying payloads in low-Earth 

 orbit. 



Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV): An Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle capable of 

 moving payloads between low-Earth orbit and some other orbit, typically 

 geostationary. 



Sky lab: A NASA mission to study the effects of increasingly long-duration space 

 flight, solar activity, and Earth resources. The Skylab Workshop was launched on 

 May 14, 1973, and was visited by three Apollo astronaut crews who lived and 

 worked in the facility for periods of 28, 59, and 84 days. 



Soyuz: Russian for "union"; a spacecraft consisting of three modules: a reentry or 

 landing module, an orbital compartment (used for crew habitation and experi- 

 mentation in orbit), and an instrument compartment. Three Soyuz versions 

 (original, "T," and 'TM") have flown over 50 missions. 



Spacehab: Commercially designed pressurized cylinders planned for incorporation 

 into the Shuttle Orbiter payload bay and connecting to the crew compartment 

 through the Orbiter airlock. The modules are intended for use as Orbiter middeck 

 augmentation volumes, expanded habitation volumes, and middeck-tvpe locker 

 experiment facilities. 



Spacelab: A general purpose, orbiting laboratory developed through the 

 European Space Agency for crew-tended and automated activities aboard the 

 Shuttle Orbiter. It includes both module and pallet sections, which can be used 

 separately or in several combinations on the Orbiter. 



Space Station: A platform in permanent Earth orbit for crew habitation and 

 experimentation currently planned by NASA and international partners. Phase 1, 

 sometimes called Block I, designates the operational Space Station, consisting of a 

 habitation module and three laboratory modules, one for NASA, another for the 

 European Space Agency, and the other for the National Space Development 

 Agency of Japan. Phase 2, also known as Block II, refers to the enlarged Space 

 Station, which will incorporate a dual keel truss structure and a servicing facility, 

 plus additional electrical power provided by solar furnace collectors. 



Variable-gravity centrifuge: A device used on orbital laboratories in which 

 centrifugal acceleration simulates terrestrial acceleration due to gravity. 



\ iking: A NASA effort of 1975-1982 that consisted ot two missions to Mars, each 

 involving dn orbiter and lander module. Both modules collected images of the 

 planet, the landers also conducted chemical analyses of the Martian surface. 





