A complement to the manned space station system
- Paper ID
IAF-88-005
- author
- company
MBB/ERNO Raumfahrttechnick GmbH
- country
Federal Republic of Germany
- year
1988
- abstract
The EURECA-A programme is presently in its final phase, the integration of the flight unit system and preparation for its first mission in 1991. This platform will present the first operational retrievable carrier for long-duration missions after the SPAS-01 system for short missions. The concept of this retrievable platform, fully autonomous and dedicated to the assigned mission needs, is an attractive feature to the user, with considerable advantages in comparison with multi-user systems like the space station. With these favourable features in mind, the EURECA concept has been further developed for dedicated missions of astrophysics, life science, as well as tethered earth observation application, and an industrial operation is in préparation.