Spacelab and Eureca as a basis for European involvement in the Space Station

The Eureka free-flyer and Spacelab are seen as major contributors to European participation in the Space Station program. A consortium of European manufacturers has invested a billion dollars in Spacelab, which was developed with NASA guidance. Spacelab supports experiments in tribology, fluid physics, crystal growth, biology and metallurgy. Eureka stays in orbit up to 6 mos before retrieval by the Shuttle, is capable of demonstrating the feasibility of Space Station components and technologies, provides co-orbiting unmanned platforms for the Space Station, and serves as a learning tool for payload preparation by European industries. Both the Spacelab and Eureka are prototype elements of the polar-orbiting Columbus component of the Space Station. The Columbus could include pressurized modules and could also co-orbit with the Space Station.