Summary 



Flight Programs 



Flight Programs includes the development of equipment, facilities, expertise, and 

 flight opportunities needed to conduct life sciences research successfully in space. 

 The hiatus in flight activity following the Challenger accident has been discouraging 

 to life sciences researchers, many of whom have waited 10 years or more to fly 



their experiments. The current 

 challenge is to assure that a 

 sufficient number and variety 

 of flight opportunities are 

 available for life sciences 

 research when the Shuttle 

 resumes operations. 



An additional challenge is to 

 pursue a vigorous ground 

 program that is closely 

 integrated with and supportive 

 of the flight program through 

 significant ground preparations. 

 These preparations include the 

 design of equipment and the 

 development of models that 

 replicate space phenomena. 



Astronaut Harrison Schmitt explores the huge lunar boulder during Apollo 17 

 extravehicular activity at the Taurus- Lit trine landing site. 



Recommendations: To facilitate the achievement of NASA and Life Sciences 

 objectives, NASA should: 



• Increase the flight opportunities for life sciences research by doing the following: 



- Dedicating a greater number of regularly scheduled Shuttle middeck lockers 

 and commercially developed flight facilities 



— Increasing the flight rate of Spacelab and dedicating a larger percentage of 

 Spacelab volume, time, and resources for life sciences experimentation 



- Dedicating clinical and biological research centers on the Phase 1 Space 

 Station 



- Deploying an unmanned spacecraft that is reusable and can support a variety 

 of flight experiments. 



• Encourage students and non-NASA life scientists to participate in mission-related 

 research but be careful not to encourage unrealistic expectations of flight 

 opportunities. 



• Develop a new generation of ground-based and o\ flight-certified 

 instrumentation, including noninvasive monitoring techniques for biomedical 

 applications, to support the research objectives of the Life Sciences program. 



Program Administration 



drninistration of the life Sciences program poses several difficult challenges. 

 Because it encompasses basic science, applied science, operations, and 





