This week in 1992, space shuttle Columbia launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. STS-52 was the first flight of the U.S. Microgravity Payload-1, a complement of three experiments mounted on two connected Spacelab Multipurpose Experiment Support Structures in the cargo bay of Columbia. Science teams on Earth remotely commanded and monitored instruments and analyzed data from workstations at the Spacelab Mission Operation Control Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Today the Payload Operations Integration Center at Marshall serves as “science central” for the International Space Station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of scientific experiments on the orbiting laboratory. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the History Program’s webpage.
Image credit: NASA