Free-flying Shuttle payloads - An extrapolation of sounding rocketry into the Shuttle era

A concept is described for flying scientific and other instruments on the Shuttle, using a free-flying payload. Low costs are maintained by minimizing interfaces with the Space Transportation System and by assembling the payload using modified sounding rocket hardware. This approach allows all Shuttle missions to be considered for scientific missions and gives the Spacelab program the freedom to concentrate on those missions which can take special advantage of supervision by the Orbiter crew.