Long Duration Exposure Facility

The Long Duration Exposure Facility was a reusable, uncrewed spacecraft design built at NASA Langley Research Center to expose experiments to the orbital environment and return them for laboratory analysis. Its twelve-sided, open-grid structure held 86 experiment trays around the sides and ends. Gravity-gradient stabilization maintained a consistent orientation without continuous powered pointing. Experiments needing power or recording equipment supplied their own systems. Shuttle robotic arms deployed and retrieved the free-flying spacecraft, allowing researchers to inspect the actual materials and hardware after prolonged exposure rather than relying only on transmitted measurements.