This volume presents a history of the Spacelab program, which was the first time that the United States space program worked with a foreign agency to design and develop a major element of a manned space vehicle.

The idea of the earth as a vessel in space came of age in an era shaped by space travel and the Cold War. Höhler’s study brings together technology, science and ecology to explore the way this latter-day ark was invoked by politicians, environmentalists, cultural historians, writers of science fiction and many others across three decades.