On some missions it carried a European-built pressurized facility called Spacelab, in which shuttle crew members conducted biological and physical research in weightless conditions.
Ion channels, which shuttle electrically charged sodium and potassium atoms into and out of cells, are responsible for, among other things, creating action potentials.
Its payload bay has served as an orbiting repair shop, most famously for the Hubble space telescope, which shuttle astronauts put into orbit and serviced four times.
Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta (www.atlanta-airport.com) -- for trivia buffs, the busiest in the world last year, in terms of passenger traffic -- has a helpful chart on its site for those traveling to the suburbs, listing which shuttle companies serve nearby locales.
Without discussing details of the current investigation, other engineers said they had a host of powerful tools to contribute to the inquiry: both computer models and high-speed wind tunnels in which shuttle models can be put through innumerable test cases.
Few of the Okavango's more than 60 safari camps are connected by road, and access is provided by a handful of small Cessna airlines, which shuttle visitors from camp to camp, bumping down on grass or dirt landing strips and tarrying only long enough to drop one load of guests and pick up another.
