Astrophysical Research in Space

Astronomy will be one of many sciences to reap enormous gains from the possibility of carrying large payloads into space. That portion of astronomy concerned with the region where the earth's atmosphere merges into space, the region of upper air geophysics, has already provided enormous new insights. Balloon, rocket, satellite and space probes have till now been largely concerned with this intermediate zone. The present large, and proposed ultra-large payload vehicles make it possible to consider experiments of fundamental astronomical and physical significance in interplanetary space, where the earth is no longer the dominant body.