Spacelab mission 4--the first dedicated life sciences mission

Spacelab is a large, versatile laboratory carried in the bay of the Shuttle Orbiter. The first Spacelab mission dedicated entirely to life sciences is Spacelab-4. It is scheduled for launch in late 1985 and will remain aloft for 7 d. All of the investigations are currently classified as "tentatively selected," with "final selection" and confirmation planned for late 1983. The 24 tentatively selected investigations have been combined into a comprehensive, integrated exploration of the effects of acute weightlessness as living systems. An emphasis is placed on studying physiological changes previously observed in manned space flight. This payload has complementary designs in both human and animal investigations in order to validate animal models of human physiology in weightlessness. The experimental subjects include humans, squirrel monkeys, laboratory rats, two species of plants, and frog eggs. The primary scientific objectives include study of the acute cephalic fluid shift, cardiovascular adaptation to weightlessness (including postflight reductions in orthostatic tolerance and exercise capacity), and changes in vestibular function (including space motion sickness), associated with weightlessness. Secondary scientific objectives include the study of red cell mass reduction, negative nitrogen balance, altered calcium metabolism, suppressed in vitro lymphocyte reactivity, gravitropism and phototropism in plants, and fertilization and early development in frog eggs. The rationale behind this payload, the selection process, and details of the individual investigations are presented in this paper.