COMMAND AND DATA HANDLING OF SCIENCE SIGNALS ON SPACELAB.

The Astronomy Spacelab Payloads (ASP) project at Goddard Space Flight Center is presently studying the necessary procedures and designs required to do astronomy in the Shuttle Sortie mode (sortie missions are those which are flown in the Shuttle bay for seven or more days and then returned to earth). The European built Spacelab is an integral part of these missions because it provides the total interface between the experiments and the Orbiter. A major part of the Spacelab is its Command and Data Management System (CDMS). This paper gives a general description of the CDMS and the capabilities it provides to the Spacelab mounted experiments. Also included is a description of the major command and data handling interfaces with the Orbiter systems.