Spacelab

This is an STS-66 mission onboard photo showing the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) moving toward one of the solar science instruments for the third Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-3) mission in the cargo bay of the Orbiter Atlantis. During the ATLAS missions, international teams of scientists representing many disciplines combined their expertise to seek answers to complex questions about the atmospheric and solar conditions that sustain life on Earth. The ATLAS program specifically investigated how Earth's middle and upper atmospheres and climate are affected by by the sun and by products of industrial and agricultural activities on Earth. Thirteen ATLAS instruments supported experiments in atmospheric sciences, solar physics, space plasma physics, and astronomy. The instruments were mounted on two Spacelab pallets in the Space Shuttle payload bay. The ATLAS-3 mission continued a variety of atmospheric and solar studies, to improve understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and its energy input from the sun. A key scientific objective was to refine existing data on variations in the fragile ozone layer of the atmosphere. The Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis was launched on November 3, 1994 for the ATLAS-3 mission (STS-66). The ATLAS program was managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center.