A legacy of European-built and operated space modules, which began in Earth orbit and is now heading for the moon, got its start 40 years ago this week.
From the first launch of Spacelab, a pressurized laboratory that rode in the payload bay of a NASA space shuttle, on Nov. 28, 1983, to Columbus, one of the main modules of the International Space Station, to I-Hab, an element of the Artemis Gateway station to be deployed in lunar orbit in the coming years, all have a common heritage — hardware that was built and assembled in Europe.
