Skylab was an experimental US space station, launched to investigate the feasibility and benefits of long stays in space. It had its origins in plans for an Earth-orbiting station NASA put forward as early as 1965. But these had to be shelved because of lack of funds. However, a space station of sorts became feasible following the cancellation of three of the projected Apollo missions. NASA designed the station around surplus hardware that the cancellations made available. In 1970 the project was named Skylab (sky laboratory). Operations called for three teams of three astronauts to visit the station,using Apollo spacecraft to ferry them to and from orbit. The core of the Skylab space station was a S-IVB third stage from a Saturn V launch vehicle. This became the orbital workshop (OWS) and was fitted out as spacious living and working quarters. Other bits were added. The airlock module (AM) was used when the astronauts went spacewalking.
The multiple docking adapter (MDA) allowed the Apollo spacecraft to dock with the station.
The Apollo telescope mount (ATM) carried a set of solar telescopes. Electrical power was provided by a 'windmill' of solar panels on the ATM and two large panels attached to the OWS. Fully fitted out, the Skylab space station was launched by a Saturn V on May 14, 1973. But minutes after lift-off part of its meteoroid and heat shield was ripped off, taking with it one solar panel on the OWS and jamming the other. When it reached orbit, Skylab began to overheat. The upcoming launch of the first crew to Skylab on May 15 was delayed until NASA devised means of repairing the damage. The crew, of Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz, were eventually launched into orbit on May 25 by a Saturn IB launch vehicle. They worked wonders. They entered the hot and ailing station, rigged up a sunshade over the damaged heat shield and freed the solar panel.
The temperature began to drop and the station began receiving enough electricity to function properly.
The three astronauts then got down to a heavy workload in the fields of medicine, Earth resources, materials and solar astronomy. They kept fit by exercising regularly on a bicycle ergonometer, and 'running' round the voluminous upper compartment of the station. The Skylab 2 crew stayed in orbit until June 22. Their 28 days aloft set a new space endurance record. The Skylab 3 crew, of Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma, climbed into orbit on July 28 and remained there until September 25, more than doubling the record, to 59 days. Unlike their predecessors, they suffered badly from space sickness at first, but this thankfully passed. Their 'make do and mend' activities on this mission included the installation of a new sunshade and replacing gyroscopes in Skylab's attitude-control system. The final mission, Skylab 4, began on November 16, when Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue went on board.
After initial friction between the crew and mission controllers because of the punishing workload, they settled down for the longest stay in space Americans have yet managed - 84 days. They left Skylab on February 8, 1974, smashing the old duration record by more than a month. Astonishingly, these astronauts were the fittest of the lot! During their three missions, the Skylab crews together flew more than 2,500 times around the Earth and travelled a distance of 115 million km. But that was not the end of the Skylab story. NASA planned to revisit the station when the space shuttle was ready and boost it to a higher orbit so that it could be used again. But by 1979 the space station, because of atmospheric drag, had descended into a dangerously low orbit, and the shuttle still wasn't ready. And on July 11,75 tonnes of Skylab plummeted to Earth, breaking up and burning up fortunately over mainly uninhabited territory in Western Australia and causing no damage to property or deaths.
