This week in 1992, the space shuttle Atlantis, mission STS-45, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida The mission carried the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science, ATLAS-1, on Spacelab pallets mounted in the orbiter’s cargo bay. The non-deployable payload was equipped with 12 instruments from the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan, and conducted studies in atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, space plasma physics and ultraviolet astronomy. Here, the forward portion of ATLAS-1 is visible in the open cargo bay of the orbiter. Credit: NASA #nasa #spaceshuttle #shuttle #atlantis #nasahistory #inspace ##spacescience #science #tbth #throwbackthursday