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The multiple docking adaptor and Apollo Telescope Mount (top left) of Skylab, viewed from the crew of the first visiting mission. Photo Credit: NASA Four decades have now passed since one of the most dramatic reversals in fortune in American space history: the salvation of Skylab. On 14 May 1973, America’s first space […] 
The Saturn V which launched Skylab was visually quite distinct from its predecessors. Although it possessed the S-IC and S-II first and second stages, the place of the third stage (S-IVB) was taken by the inert space station. Photo Credit: NASA Forty-five years ago, this month, America almost lost its first space station. […] The salvation of Skylab, perhaps more so than any previous endeavor, validated the importance of Extravehicular Activity (EVA). Photo Credit: NASA Construction and maintenance of an Earth-circling laboratory is nothing new in the 21st century, for dozens of humans from a multitude of nations have toiled in low-Earth orbit to assemble the International […] Apollo 13’s Latin motto of “Ex Luna, Scientia” (“From the Moon, Knowledge”) highlighted this mission as a voyage of exploration and scientific endeavor. Image Credit: NASA Forty-five years ago, yesterday, on Saturday, 11 April 1970, the third piloted mission to deposit human explorers onto the surface of the Moon got underway, with a […] The final Skylab mission marked the first occasion on which a spacewalk was conducted on Christmas Day. Photo Credit: NASA Three weeks have now passed since a trio of Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) took place outside the International Space Station (ISS) to prepare the orbital outpost for a significant period of expansion and hardware […] Fred Haise, Jack Swigert, and Jim Lovell pose for a pre-flight photo days before their mission. Photo Credit: NASA/The Project Apollo Image Gallery via the Project Apollo Archive It is perhaps one of the most well-known, oft-repeated stories in the history of human spaceflight. In April 1970, an oxygen tank explosion in Apollo […] Skylab 3 and astronauts Al Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma returned safely to Earth on 25 September 1973, after 59 days in orbit. Yet for the first quarter of their mission, the exact duration of their flight remained open to question. Photo Credit: NASA Forty years ago this summer, America’s first space […] 73HC-453 Photo Credit: NASA Astronaut Pete Conrad leads fellow Skylab 2 astronauts Paul Weitz and Joe Kerwin into the crew transfer van at Kennedy Space Center on the morning of May 25, 1973. The flight of the first manned crew to Skylab had been delayed 10 days while NASA and contractor officials developed […] With a cry of “We can fix anything,” the first crew heads toward Skylab on 25 May 1973. Since the launch pad was originally configured for the enormous Saturn V rocket, the smaller Saturn IB required a “pedestal” to raise its stages to the appropriate level for umbilicals and other utilities. Photo Credit: […] Clogged with debris, Skylab’s sole surviving solar array was left pinned to the side of the station. This view from the first crew illustrates the daunting nature of the problem. Photo Credit: NASA The month of May 1973 quickly turned from one of euphoria into, potentially, one of the darkest in NASA’s history. […] |
 Next Launch Starlink-26 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFB, FL scheduled for: 9 May 21 at 6:42 GMT 9 May 21 at 2:42am Eastern 
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