As the Apollo program began to wind down, NASA considered how to get to orbit and do useful work without requiring more expendable Saturn rockets.

Fast-forward to 40 years ago – November 28, 1983 – and the first Spacelab module was nestled in the payload bay of Space Shuttle Columbia for STS-9.

Of the preparation, NASA noted in its history: "The entire payload crew spent so much of their time travelling to Europe that John W. Young, who was then chief of the Astronaut Office, called their flight assignment and European training, which involved travel to exotic locations like Rome, Italy, 'a magnificent boondoggle.

The mission went well and laid the groundwork for further cooperation between the agencies and countries, most notably the International Space Station and ESA contributions to the effort to return humans to the Moon.

He went on: “The cause of one of the failures turned out to be a sliver of solder eleven-thousandths of an inch thick that became dislodged when the thrusters were fired, shorting out the CPU board.”

As well as the computer failures, one of the orbiter’s three auxiliary power units (APUs) caught fire and burned itself out – something that lay undiscovered until days later.

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