cargo bay

noun

1. the large central area of the space shuttle orbiter's fuselage in which payloads and their support equipment are carried.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cargo bay¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

As if they were performing delicate surgery, a crew inside the California Science Center museum hoisted a 3,000-pound portable space lab and storage pod inside the space shuttle Endeavour’s huge cargo bay Thursday, reuniting the retired orbiter with a piece of equipment it used on some missions over its two decades of flight.

From Los Angeles Times

By opening with no preamble, Stone put us into his soldiers’ boots: An aircraft cargo bay yawns wide to discharge “the cherries,” these achingly young soldiers, into the swirling, sulfurous dust of a Vietnam air base in 1967.

From Los Angeles Times

The cargo bay of a space shuttle was large enough to hold Hubble, which at 43.5 feet long and 14 feet wide is roughly the size of a school bus.

From New York Times

A few other accidents were caused by the pilot failing to balance the load in the cargo bay before takeoff, shifting the plane’s center of gravity.

From Seattle Times

At last she could see what the windowless cargo bay had hidden: the land crawling past with the illusory dawdle caused by altitude and parallax.

From Slate