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Skylab, America’s first space station, is successfully launched into an orbit around the earth. Eleven days later, U.S. astronauts Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz made a rendezvous with Skylab, repairing a jammed solar panel and conducting scientific experiments during their 28-day stay aboard the space station.
The first manned Skylab mission came two years after the Soviet Union launched Salynut, the world’s first space station, into orbit around the earth. However, unlike the ill-fated Salynut, which was plagued with problems, the American space station was a great success, safely housing three separate three-man crews for extended periods of time and exceeding pre-mission plans for scientific study.
Originally the spent third stage of a Saturn 5 moon rocket, the cylinder space station was 118 feet tall, weighed 77 tons, and carried the most varied assortment of experimental equipment ever assembled in a single spacecraft to that date. The crews of Skylab spent more than 700 hours observing the sun and brought home more than 175,000 solar pictures. They also provided important information about the biological effects of living in space for prolonged periods of time. Five years after the last Skylab mission, the space station’s orbit began to deteriorate faster than expected, owing to unexpectedly high sunspot activity. On July 11, 1979, the parts of the space station that did not burn up in the atmosphere came crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean. No one was injured.
The first manned Skylab mission came two years after the Soviet Union launched Salynut, the world’s first space station, into orbit around the earth. However, unlike the ill-fated Salynut, which was plagued with problems, the American space station was a great success, safely housing three separate three-man crews for extended periods of time and exceeding pre-mission plans for scientific study.
Originally the spent third stage of a Saturn 5 moon rocket, the cylinder space station was 118 feet tall, weighed 77 tons, and carried the most varied assortment of experimental equipment ever assembled in a single spacecraft to that date. The crews of Skylab spent more than 700 hours observing the sun and brought home more than 175,000 solar pictures. They also provided important information about the biological effects of living in space for prolonged periods of time. Five years after the last Skylab mission, the space station’s orbit began to deteriorate faster than expected, owing to unexpectedly high sunspot activity. On July 11, 1979, the parts of the space station that did not burn up in the atmosphere came crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean. No one was injured.
Skylab launched - May 14, 1973 - HISTORY.com
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Apollo Skylab 1 Launch May 14, 1973.mp4
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a w...
Thank you TSgt Joe C. for reminding us that on May 14, 1973 Skylab, America’s first space station, was successfully launched into an orbit around the earth. Eleven days later, U.S. astronauts Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz made a rendezvous with Skylab, repairing a jammed solar panel and conducting scientific experiments during their 28-day stay aboard the space station.
"Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched, initially unmanned, by a modified Saturn V rocket, and weighed about 77 metric tons in orbit by itself. Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 by an Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. During that time, an additional Saturn IB was on standby for rescuing those in orbit.
Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended. Plans were drawn up to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it; however, in 1979, before the shuttle was ready, Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, with debris striking portions of Western Australia."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsW86kNLu1k
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt (Join to see) SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert George SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Craig Cheltenham
"Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched, initially unmanned, by a modified Saturn V rocket, and weighed about 77 metric tons in orbit by itself. Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 by an Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. During that time, an additional Saturn IB was on standby for rescuing those in orbit.
Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended. Plans were drawn up to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it; however, in 1979, before the shuttle was ready, Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, with debris striking portions of Western Australia."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsW86kNLu1k
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt (Join to see) SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert George SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Craig Cheltenham
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LTC Stephen F.
I am glad you enjoyed it Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen I try to add something when I respond to historical posts.
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The Space race really drove our push into space and all theinventions resulting from it.
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