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This series will focus on some of the other "vehicles" that were 'OUT IN SPACE".
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of 169,950 pounds (77 t). Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the third mission, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by, ready for launch if needed to rescue the crew in orbit.
Skylab included an Apollo Telescope Mount (a multi-spectral solar observatory), Multiple Docking Adapter with two docking ports, Airlock Module with EVA hatches, and the Orbital Workshop, the main habitable volume of the station. Power came from solar arrays, as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.
The station was damaged at launch when the micrometeoroid shield separated from the station and tore away, depriving the station of most of its power, removing protection from intense solar heating, and threatening to make the station unusable. The first crew was able to save it in the first ever in-space major repair, by deploying a replacement heat shade and freeing the single remaining, jammed main solar array.
Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. The Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP), was used to view the Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended.
Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it. However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia.
After Skylab's demise, the focus shifted to the reusable Spacelab module, an orbital workshop that could be deployed from the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth. The next American space station project was Space Station Freedom, which was never completed, although it eventually led to the construction of the US Orbital Segment of the International Space Station, starting in 1998. Shuttle-Mir was another project, and led to the U.S. funding Spektr, Priroda, and the Mir Docking Module in the 1990s.
MANNED MISSIONS
Three manned missions were made to Skylab: SL-2, SL-3 and SL-4.
The station underwent extensive repair during a spacewalk (extra-vehicular activity, or EVA) by the crew of the SL-2 mission, which launched on 25 May 1973 atop a Saturn IB. If the crew had failed to repair Skylab in time, the plastic insulation inside the station would have melted, releasing poisonous gas and making Skylab completely uninhabitable. They stayed in orbit with Skylab for 28 days. Two additional missions followed, with the launch dates of 28 July 1973 (SL-3) and 16 November 1973 (SL-4), and mission durations of 59 and 84 days, respectively. The last Skylab crew returned to the Earth on 8 February 1974.
ORBITAL OPERATIONS
Skylab orbited Earth 2,476 times during the 171 days and 13 hours of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. Astronauts performed ten spacewalks, totaling 42 hours and 16 minutes. Skylab logged about 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments, 127,000 frames of film of the Sun and 46,000 of the Earth. Solar experiments included photographs of eight solar flares, and produced valuable results that scientists stated would have been impossible to obtain with unmanned spacecraft. The existence of the Sun's coronal holes were confirmed because of these efforts. Many of the experiments conducted investigated the astronauts' adaptation to extended periods of microgravity.
A typical day began at 6 AM Central Time Zone. Although the toilet was small and noisy, both veteran astronauts—who had endured earlier missions' rudimentary waste-collection systems—and rookies complimented it. The first crew enjoyed taking a shower once a week, but found drying themselves in weightlessness and vacuuming excess water difficult; later crews usually cleaned themselves daily with wet washcloths instead of using the shower. Astronauts also found that bending over in weightlessness to put on socks or tie shoelaces strained their stomach muscles.
Breakfast began at 7 AM. Astronauts usually stood to eat, as sitting in microgravity also strained their stomach muscles. They reported that their food—although greatly improved from Apollo—was bland and repetitive, and weightlessness caused utensils, food containers, and bits of food to float away; also, gas in their drinking water contributed to flatulence. After breakfast and preparation for lunch, experiments, tests and repairs of spacecraft systems and, if possible, 90 minutes of physical exercise followed; the station had a bicycle and other equipment, and astronauts could jog around the water tank. After dinner, which was scheduled for 6 PM, crews performed household chores and prepared for the next day's experiments. Following lengthy daily instructions (some of which were up to 15 meters long) sent via teleprinter, the crews were often busy enough to postpone sleep.
Each Skylab mission set a record for the amount of time astronauts spent in space. The station offered what a later study called "a highly satisfactory living and working environment for crews", with enough room for personal privacy. Although it had a dart set, playing cards, and other recreational equipment in addition to books and music players, the window with its view of Earth became the most popular way to relax in orbit.
MISSIONS
SKYLAB 1 SL-1
unmanned launch of space station
Launch date: 1973-05-14 17:30:00 UTC
Landing Date: 1979-07-11 16:37:00 UTC
Duration (days):2248.96
SKYLAB 2 SL-2 (SLM-1)
Commander: Pete Conrad
Pilot: Paul Weitz
Science Pilot: Joseph Kerwin
Launch Date: 1973-05-25 13:00:00 UTC
Landing Date: 1973-06-22 13:49:48 UTC
Duration (days): 28.03
SKYLAB 3 SL-3 (SLM-2)
Commander: Alan Bean
Pilot: Jack Lousma
Science Pilot: Owen Garriott
Launch Date: 1973-07-28 11:10:50 UTC
Landing Date: 1973-09-25 22:19:51 UTC
Duration (days): 59.46
SKYLAB 4 SL-4 (SLM-3)
Commander: Gerald Carr
Pilot: William Pogue
Science Pilot: Edward Gibson
Launch Date: 1973-11-16 14:01:23 UTC
Landing Date: 1974-02-08 15:16:53 UTC
Duration (days): 84.04
PROGRAM COST
The Skylab program cost $2.2 billion from 1966 to 1974, or $10 billion in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars. As its three three-man crews spent 510 total man-days in space, each man-day cost $19.6 million in 2010 dollars, compared to $7.5 million for the International Space Station.
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