50 years ago the United States launched its first and so far only space station. Two years earlier, on April 19, 1971, the then Soviet Union had launched Salyut 1, the first home-laboratory in space and many years later the International Space Station inherited both, becoming the largest human outpost in Earth orbit born of the collaboration of the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan.
Skylab was a pioneering mission: inhabited continuously until February 1974 by three crews of three astronauts each, it demonstrated that human beings could live and work in space for long periods. It was a progressive adaptation: the first crew, which included Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joe Kerwin spent 28 days on Skylab, the second, with Alan Bean, Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott, faced a 59-day mission and the third and last, with Jerry Carr, Bill Pogue and Edward Gibson reached the record of 84 days, beaten only 20 years later by the joint mission of the NASA Shuttle and the Soviet Mir space station.
Skylab was also the protagonist of much scientific research conducted in microgravity conditions, it was also a solar observatory and a special Earth observatory, as well as a human physiology laboratory. It was also the testing ground for many new technologies to deal with daily life in space, now used on the Space Station, such as special showers and toilets, sleeping bags, exercise equipment and stoves.
In the short history of Skylab, unexpected events are not lacking. For example, damage caused by a meteoroid to one of the solar panels during the launch had to be repaired by the prime crew, while problems with the propulsion systems instead gave the second crew a hard time. However, the biggest unexpected event was caused by a very intense period of solar activity, which forced NASA to revise its initial plan to leave Skylab in orbit for about ten years, until the arrival of the Space Shuttles. Thus, on July 11, 1979, Skylab was forced to return to Earth, disintegrating on impact with the atmosphere, with a rain of debris over the area between Western Australia and the south-eastern Indian Ocean.
Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
