Skylab
America''s first space station, ingeniously repurposed from the third stage of a Saturn V rocket. Three crews lived aboard Skylab in 1973-1974, conducting solar observations and medical experiments that laid the groundwork for long-duration spaceflight.
History
Skylab was born from an elegant bit of engineering improvisation: take the third stage of a Saturn V rocket, convert its hydrogen fuel tank into a habitable workshop, and launch it to orbit fully equipped. The result was by far the most spacious crewed vehicle ever flown -- its orbital workshop had an internal volume larger than a small house, with enough room for astronauts to float freely and even perform acrobatic maneuvers.
The launch on May 14, 1973, nearly killed the program before it started. During ascent, the station''s micrometeoroid shield tore away, taking one of the two main solar array wings with it and pinning the other shut. Without the shield, the workshop''s interior temperature soared to 126 degrees Fahrenheit. The station was uninhabitable.
NASA engineers worked frantically to devise a repair plan. The first crew, launched 11 days later, performed a series of spacewalks to deploy a parasol-like sunshade through a scientific airlock and free the jammed solar panel. The repairs worked, and Skylab became fully operational. Three crews visited the station in 1973-1974, the longest staying 84 days -- then a record for American astronauts.
Skylab''s solar observatory, the Apollo Telescope Mount, provided unprecedented views of the Sun. The station''s medical experiments documented the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body for the first time. Skylab reentered the atmosphere in July 1979, scattering debris across Western Australia, where the Shire of Esperance famously fined NASA $400 for littering.
