SPAS-ORFEUS
Another payload on this mission was the Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (ORFEUS) telescope mounted on the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) payload carrier. ORFEUS was designed to provide information on how stars are born and how they die, while studying gaseous interstellar clouds. Also in the cargo bay was the Limited Duration Space Environment Candidate Materials Exposure (LDCE) experiment.
MBB (Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm) began development of the SPAS carrier (flown previously on STS-7, STS-41B, and STS-39) in 1986 into a free-flying astronomical platform. The DARA/NASA agreement called for four co-operative science missions, with DARA providing the satellite, NASA the Shuttle launch and deployment/retrieval services, and the two parties sharing the science instruments. NASA provided the Shuttle free of charge, in return for access to data and the inclusion of US experiments. ORFEUS, the Orbiting and Retrievable Far/Extreme UV Spectrometer, designed to measure radiation between 400–1,280 angstroms, was released at 14.06 GMT 13 September 1993, and was retrieved at 11.50 GMT 19 September 1993. Science contributions came from the University of Tübingen, Sternwarte Heidelberg, University of Berkeley and Princeton University (IMPAS). ORFEUS' telescope was fabricated by Kayser-Threde in Germany; France's REOSC provided the 1 m f/2.5 mirror. The separate 950-1,150 Å IMAPS Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph added to the observations of hot galactic objects and the interstellar medium at high spectral resolution (240,000). Other payloads were DLR's Surface Effective Sample Monitor and Canada's IMAX Cargo Bay Camera, which was used to film Discovery in orbit for the IMAX film Destiny in Space. A portion of this footage was also included in Space Station 3D. This was the fourth flight of the SPAS platform, of a total of seven during the space shuttle program. The SPAS-ORFEUS version was reflown on mission STS-80 in 1996.
Read more about this topic: STS-51