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- Skylab
#kosmická stanice#skylab
Skylab was the first U.S. space station. NASA launched it on 14 May 1973 on a two-stage Saturn V; its orbital workshop was derived from an S-IVB stage, and three crews worked aboard during the following year. The station gave the United States its first experience of long-duration human operations in orbit.
Launch damaged the thermal shield and one solar array, so the first crew had to rescue the station with an improvised sunshade and repairs. Skylab then became a laboratory for solar observation, medical experiments, and studying crew adaptation. It re-entered the atmosphere in July 1979, but its experience influenced later shuttle and ISS programmes.
Facts
- The three Skylab expeditions lasted about 28, 59, and 84 days.
- The Skylab 4 crew set the then U.S. record of 84 days in space.
- The station carried the Apollo Telescope Mount for observing the Sun above Earth’s atmosphere.
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Sources & further reading
- NASA: overview of the first U.S. station’s design, crews, and science programme.
- NASA History: historical context for Skylab’s launch and operations.
Spaceflightpedia. (n.d.). Skylab. Retrieved 9 October 2026, from https://spaceflightpedia.com/article/skylab
article text — CC-BY-SA · ◉ NASA photography — public domain · ✦ AI illustration — marked, generated from sources
