By Ben Evans, on May 28th, 2018
Don Peterson (right) eats and confers with Commander Paul “P.J.” Weitz during STS-6. Weitz died last year. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de
Veteran astronaut Don Peterson, who flew aboard STS-6, the maiden voyage of orbiter Challenger, performed the first-ever spacewalk from the shuttle airlock and might—had the hands of fate turned […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Ben Evans, on May 27th, 2018
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 […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Ben Evans, on May 20th, 2018
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. […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Ben Evans, on October 24th, 2017
Paul Weitz, pictured at Skylab’s Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), during his 28-day mission in May-June 1973. Photo Credit: NASA
Veteran astronaut Paul “P.J.” Weitz, who spacewalked to save America’s Skylab space station and later commanded shuttle Challenger on its maiden voyage, died yesterday (Monday, 23 October). He was 85. During a NASA career […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Ben Evans, on June 5th, 2015 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 […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Ben Evans, on March 21st, 2015 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 […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Ben Evans, on August 4th, 2013 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 […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Emily Carney, on July 30th, 2013 This weekend, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation remembered the United States’ first space station—Skylab. Photo Credit: NASA
In an episode of Mad Men entitled “The Wheel,” the show’s protagonist, Don Draper, intoned while pitching an ad campaign for a Kodak Carousel slide projector, “Nostalgia—it’s delicate, but potent … Greek, ‘nostalgia’ literally means ‘the pain […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Emily Carney, on July 8th, 2013 Skylab, as seen by its second crew in 1973. America’s first space station celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and will be honored at an Astronaut Scholarship Foundation gala this month. Photo Credit: NASA
On Saturday, July 27, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) will host a gala benefit in honor of Skylab, America’s […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By J.L. Pickering, on May 25th, 2013 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 […]
Like this:Like Loading...
|
|