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| Get Away Special | |
|---|---|
| Name | Get Away Special |
| Operator | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| Country | United States |
| Status | Discontinued |
| First | 1982 |
| Last | 1998 |
| Launches | 97 |
Get Away Special Get Away Special was a program that offered ride‑along payload accommodations on Space Shuttle missions for external organizations, private groups, and educational institutions. It provided low‑cost opportunities to fly experiments and small payloads alongside crewed payloads such as the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Spacelab. The program connected a diverse array of participants including NASA, university research teams, corporate laboratories, amateur groups, and international partners such as the National Space Agency of Japan.
Created to broaden access to Space Shuttle flight opportunities, the program accepted self‑contained payloads conforming to standardized containers that fit within the Shuttle’s middeck or cargo bay. Participants ranged from Massachusetts Institute of Technology teams to citizen groups and firms like Lockheed Martin or Raytheon seeking microgravity data. The program juxtaposed smaller projects with major missions including STS-41, STS-61, and flights supporting the International Space Station assembly sequence. Its structure mirrored educational outreach initiatives such as those by National Science Foundation and collaborative efforts with agencies like European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Conceived amid Space Shuttle program development debates, the initiative emerged to maximize shuttle utilization after studies by Marshall Space Flight Center planners and policy guidance from Office of Management and Budget. Early advocacy involved stakeholders at Johnson Space Center and shuttle program managers coordinating with industrial partners like Boeing and academic consortia including California Institute of Technology. The first flights occurred during the 1980s era of missions such as STS-5 and expanded through the 1990s alongside missions like STS-31. Following the Columbia disaster and the reshaping of shuttle flight manifest priorities, program activity declined and later administrative changes at Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center led to discontinuation as priorities shifted toward International Space Station logistics and vehicles like SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman Cygnus.
Payloads conformed to standardized canisters and deployers sized to fit in middeck lockers or the payload bay, derived from engineering work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ames Research Center. Structural and thermal constraints referenced standards established by NASA Standard 3000 protocols and safety reviews conducted by Orbital Sciences Corporation and independent review boards. Power, telemetry, and environment control interfaces matched shuttle systems overseen by Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center, while vibration and shock limits adhered to test regimes used by Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Specific container types included cylindrical "bucket" modules with payload mass limits comparable to cargo parameters used for experiments on Spacelab and Spacehab.
GAS flights carried an array of scientific, technological, and cultural payloads: student experiments from University of Colorado, materials processing tests by General Electric, biological studies by researchers at Stanford University and Harvard University, and art projects sponsored by organizations like Smithsonian Institution. Notable missions included microsatellite deployments and passive experiments alongside major Shuttle payloads such as the Hubble Space Telescope servicing flights and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite support flights. International participants from European Space Agency member states, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russian Federal Space Agency collaborated on joint experiments. Several GAS payloads enabled prototype demonstrations feeding into projects by companies such as Orbital Sciences Corporation and Space Systems/Loral.
Proposals were solicited through announcements coordinated by NASA program offices and evaluated by panels including representatives from Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, and external reviewers from institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology. Applicants ranged from accredited universities (e.g., Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University) to non‑profit groups and commercial entities such as Hughes Aircraft Company. Selection criteria emphasized safety compliance, technical maturity, and integration feasibility with shuttle manifest constraints, with final approvals routed through flight project managers at Kennedy Space Center and mission integration teams. Funding models varied: some payloads were university‑funded or supported by grants from bodies like National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, others sponsored by corporations or government laboratories.
The program expanded access to crewed spaceflight for a broad community of participants, influencing later commercial small‑satellite and ride‑share paradigms used by providers such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab. Technical lessons in standardized payload interfaces informed designs in smallsat deployers and cubesat standards developed by groups including California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University's Space Systems Development Lab. Educational outcomes seeded careers in organizations like Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin and inspired outreach models used by Smithsonian Institution and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Its archival records reside across repositories at NASA History Office and institutional archives at centers such as Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center.
Category:NASA programs