beyond Earth’s orbit on their way to the moon. McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach, Calif., built the third stage of the Saturn V for the Apollo lunar program and would modify it into the Saturn Orbital Workshop, the living and working quarters of Skylab. A separate Airlock Module for Skylab was built by McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis. In all, three three-man crews of U.S. astronauts, including those on the repair mission, occupied the workshop for a total of 171 days, 13 hours. Skylab’s 10,000 cubic feet (280 cubic meters) of living and working area was the site of nearly 300 scientific, technical and life science experiments, according to NASA. The final Skylab crew left the workshop on Feb. 8, 1974, after completing its 84-day mission. Among its duties was observing the comet Kohoutek. Early on, there were discussions about possibly refurbishing Skylab and boosting it into a higher orbit using a space shuttle. But when the shuttle program was delayed, Skylab’s fate was sealed. Uninhabited, it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in July 1979 and burned up, scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and sparsely inhabited Western Australia. LeLand F. Belew, Skylab program manager at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., perhaps best summed up Skylab’s accomplishments at the time, when he said: “The wealth of information obtained during man’s longest journey into space has provided the answers to many questions, as well as revealing new questions and knowledge about the sun, the Earth, space and man himself. An adventure of today, Skylab was also an investment in tomorrow. Its results are a legacy for all … forever.” n henry.t.brownlee-jr@boeing.com PHOTOS: (Left) After Skylab was damaged during launch, astronauts freed its remaining stuck solar panel and placed a protective sun shield on the lab, shown here. (Insets, from left) The Skylab 4 crew demonstrates weightlessness; the Skylab 2 crew trains before its flight. NASA BOEING FRONTIERS / AUGUST 2012 11
Frontiers August 2012 Issue
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