WAKE SHIELD FACILITY-3 (WSF-3): The WSF-3 was a 12-foot diameter, free-flying, stainless steel disk designed to generate an “ultra vacuum” environment in space in which to grow semiconductor thin films for use in advanced electronics. The STS-80 crew deployed and retrieved the WSF during the 17-day mission using Columbia’s “robot arm”, or Remote Manipulator System.
Wake Shield was sponsored by the Space Processing Division in NASA’s Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications. It was designed, built and operated by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center at the University of Houston-a NASA Commercial Space Center, in conjunction with its industrial partner, Space Industries, Inc., also in Houston.