The Skylab Space Station
America's permanently manned space station is presented in depth in this VideoJug film. Discover all you wish to know about the Skylab Space Station today!
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When the Apollo moon landings came to an abrupt end in December 1972, NASA set about developing a permanently manned space station.
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Skylab was launched on 14th May 1973 on top of the last Saturn V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
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It was actually an adapted second stage from a Saturn IB rocket left over from the cancelled Apollo Moon landings.
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It weighed 75 tons and was beset with problems from the outset. It lost its meteorite and sun shield and also one of its solar panels used for producing electricity on board.
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The space station was meant to be an orbiting laboratory with a solar observatory. But because of the mission problems its full potential was never realised.
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A sun shield had to be erected across the back of the skylab to help with over heating from the sun.
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Only 3 crews of 3 astronauts each ever visited Skylab between May 1973 and February 1974 with the longest stay lasting 84 days.
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The station was held in a parking orbit intended to be rescued in 1979 by a space shuttle moving it to a higher orbit. Unfortunately delays on the launch of the Space Shuttle until 1981 meant that Skylab could not be saved.
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It was brought back into the Earths atmosphere and crash landed in western Australia in July 1979.
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The United States was fined $400 for littering.
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