Spacelab is being developed by European Industry, for the European Space Agency,a s Europe's contribution to the Spacelab Transportation System. In order to understand the Mass Properties Management System the paper is presented in three parts.

The first part is background information into the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as information on space activities in Europe. It attempts to show the national and international space activities in Europe.

The second part will give a technical description of Spacelab. It will describe the Spacelab performance, its operational flexibility with various alternative flight configurations and how it interfaces with the Orbiter. In addition this section will show the geographical distribution of Spacelab within European industry and problems that it entails.

The third and final part will describe the Spacelab Mass Properties Management System. It will describe the Mass Control Procedure, the reasons for control by configuration and not by element and advantages and disadvantages of this method. It will also show the problems of attempting to maximize Spacelab payload weight whilst the Spacelab System is the Orbiters payload. This part will also give an overview into the center of gravity problems associated with Spacelab.