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I have to guess, but I would guess that military applications cover the full range from biology to physics. Human physiology, guidance systems, materials and component testing, much of it directly related to air craft design and pilot performance, control interfaces, communication, surveillance, data acquisition and processing systems, weapon system performance (minus explosive package), power supplies, etc. Plus of course everything in satellites.
You have to imagine the shuttle as a unique testing environment with all sorts of otherwise unavailable features: temperature extremes, various intense e-m radiations, sunlight, uv, cosmic rays, and extreme mechanical forces like variable gravity, extreme velocities, accelerations, decelerations, extreme vibrations, and so forth. All of these taken together are not available in such a fabulous array to most biology, chemistry, physics and engineering labs.
Obviously Columbia flunked its big airframe and material fatigue test.
Chuck Grimes