A number of facilities were designed to be carried in the shuttles payload bay, returned to Earth, refurbished and re-used on other missions.

These included pressurised habitable and non-habitable modules as well as un-pressurised carriers. Modules and carriers were either fixed or removable during the mission.

Spacelab is a re-usable, research laboratory facility carried in the payload bay of the shuttle. It consists of two major elements: a pressurized, habitable laboratory called a module and unpressurized platforms called pallets designed to support instruments which require direct exposure to space.

Pressurised Module A habitable pressurised cylinder which comes in two sections, a core segment and an experiment segment. The core segment can be flown by itself, in what is called the short module configuration, or coupled in tandem with the experiment segment in the long module configuration.

Un-pressurised Pallets A U shaped aluminum frame and panel structures. Up to five Spacelab pallets can be flown in the cargo bay, individually or with two or three linked together to form trains. When pallets are flown without the module, the subsystems necessary for experiment operation are contained in a pressurized cylinder called an "igloo".

Pressurised Igloo A non-habitable pressurized cylinder containing subsystems necessary for experiment operation when pallets are flown without the module.

The table (right) lists all Spacelab missions by year ▷

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U.S. commercial company SPACEHAB Inc. (called Astrotech Corporation since 2009) provided space habitat microgravity experimentation equipment and services to NASA during the Shuttle era.

SPACEHAB hardware included pressurised modules, for research and logistics, as well as un-pressurised cargo pallets. These were specifically designed to fit inside the Shuttle orbiter cargo bay and remain there during the duration of the mission.

Pressurized modules included: Single Module (SM), Research Double Module (RDM), Logistics Single Module (LSM) and Logistics Double Module (LDM). These were located in the forward end of the shuttle orbiter cargo bay. They were accessed from the orbiter mid deck through a tunnel adapter connected to the airlock.

The Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) was an un-pressurised cargo pallet usually located to the rear of the shuttle orbiter cargo bay.

SPACEHAB Research Double Module flew only on the ill-fated Columbia STS-107 mission, in which it was destroyed.

The table (right) lists all SPACEHAB missions by year ▷

The Multi-Purpose Logistics Module [MPLM] is a pressurised cargo module built for NASA by the Italian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI).

The MPLM carries equipment, supplies, laboratory racks and experiments for the International Space Station (ISS). It is transported in the Shuttle's cargo bay. During transit the MPLM is independent of the shuttle's cabin. There is no internal access from the shuttle to the module.

After the shuttle is docked to the Station the MPLM is lifted from the cargo bay using the shuttle's or the Station's robot arm. It is then connected to the Station the Common Berthing Mechanism, which locks it in place with an airtight seal.

The MPLM is then be unloaded directly into the Station and re-loaded with waste and items to be returned to Earth. At the end of the mission the MPLM is undocked from the Station and re-berthed in the shuttle's cargo bay for return to Earth.

Three MPLMs were built to allow time for turn around; Leonardo, Raffaello and Donnatello. Donnatello was kept as a spare and never flown to the station.

The table (right) lists all SPACEHAB missions by year ▷

For more information, refer to rdata _space article on the ISS.