Source:NASA

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Europe executed successfully two programs for manned space with NASA up to now:

 

Spacelab

Columbus

Especially interesting was the transfer phase "From Spacelab to Columbus" to which i wrote down some reflections and observations. Also the behavior of the many discipline related system engineers and their specific characteristics might be of interest.

 

Step by step the principles for verification of manned space systems - that is the task making space quite expensive - were developed. Especcially the Qualification of the APM functional architecture was a complex task.

 

Soon a very good co-operation with NASA was established (in the beginning they considered the Europeans as inexperienced Newbies); also fun was not missing during the common activities shown in the comic about Spacelab CDR 1978.

 

For visualization for non-space people I programmed an ISS Simulator with which you can try shuttle docking at the ISS.

 

>> NASA

>> ESA