Skylab

Skylab was the first United States space station, launched on 14 May 1973 using the last Saturn V rocket. The station was built from a converted S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V and had a habitable volume of 352 m³ — vastly larger than anything previously flown. It orbited at approximately 435 km altitude.

Skylab suffered serious damage during launch when a micrometeoroid shield and one solar panel were torn away, threatening to make the station uninhabitable due to overheating. The first crew (Skylab 2, launched 11 days later) conducted a dramatic EVA repair, deploying a parasol sunshade and freeing the remaining jammed solar panel — saving the station in what became one of NASA's finest problem-solving achievements.

Three crews occupied Skylab for a total of 171 days. The programme conducted extensive research in solar astronomy (using the Apollo Telescope Mount), Earth observation, materials science, and human adaptation to long-duration spaceflight. Skylab demonstrated that humans could live and work productively in space for months at a time — essential knowledge for the Shuttle and ISS eras that followed.

NASA had hoped to reboost Skylab using the Space Shuttle, but delays in the Shuttle programme meant the station's orbit decayed before it could be reached. Skylab re-entered the atmosphere on 11 July 1979, scattering debris across Western Australia. No one was injured, and the Shire of Esperance famously fined NASA $400 for littering.