Remembering Skylab 50 Years On

Launch damage to NASA’s first space station forced Apollo 13-style engineering improvisation.

Dan Carney, Senior Editor

May 11, 2023

17 Slides
NASA Skylab launch
NASA launches the Skylab space station atop a Saturn V rocket, April 14, 1973.NASA

Skylab was NASA’s first space station, fashioned out of the upper stage of a Saturn V moon rocket made redundant by the decision to shorten the Apollo moon landing program to just seven landing attempts. Apollo 13 famously did not land on the moon due to the explosion of a Command Module oxygen tank en route to the moon.

One of the surplus Saturn Vs was used to launch Skylab on May 14, 1973, while smaller Saturn 1Bs were used to launch crews to the station. For the first mission, NASA positioned the Saturn V with Skylab on Launch Pad 39A while the Saturn 1B for the crew was on Launch Pad 39B for launch the day after the station. It was the only time NASA ever had two Saturn rockets on the pads at the same time.

Launch

Launch of the first Skylab crew was delayed ten days while NASA engineers scrambled to devise solutions to the damage the station suffered on launch when the meteorite shield/sunshade tore loose and ripped off one of the station’s two solar arrays. Worse yet, cables to the damaged components got wrapped around the remaining solar panel, preventing its deployment.

The station did have another separate array of four solar panels that spread like flower petals from the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), which carried a camera for studying the sun. Those panels only powered that device, however. Even those panels had a problem when the power conditioner managing power generated by the ATM’s panels didn’t work properly. However, NASA technicians on the ground remembered having the same problem during ground tests and sent their recommended fix: whack it with a hammer. That repair worked, saving the ATM’s mission.

Troubleshooting

The first crew was also tasked with freeing the remaining solar panel so it could be deployed to run the station on half the expected power. Inside, Skylab was separated into two "floors;" the "upper" floor contained storage lockers and a large empty space for conducting experiments, and two airlocks, one pointed "down" toward the earth and the other "up" toward the sun; the "lower" floor was divided into rooms including a dining room with a table, three bedrooms, a work area, a bathroom, and a shower. The floors consisted of an open gridwork that fit cleats on the bottom of the astronauts' shoes.

Repair work cost a significant portion of the mission’s four-week duration. During the time remaining in orbit, the crew managed to achieve nearly 100 percent of the projected medical research goals for the mission. The crew also managed to accomplish most of the assigned tasks involving the observation of solar activity, eventually taking more than 25,000 pictures of the sun. The first crew never fully caught up, but still managed to complete an estimated 60 percent of the planned earth resources experiments.

Subsequent Missions

The first crew returned to Earth on June 22 and was followed by two subsequent crews, from July-Sept. 1973 and Nov. 1973-Jan. 1974.

Three missions were all that Skylab ever hosted, as NASA planned to boost its orbit periodically with the Space Shuttle. However, that vehicle’s development was repeatedly delayed, and the Space Shuttle Columbia launched for the first time in April 1981, two years after Skylab fell back to Earth.

Click through the photo gallery for a look at some of Skylab’s accomplishments.

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About the Author

Dan Carney

Senior Editor, Design News

Dan’s coverage of the auto industry over three decades has taken him to the racetracks, automotive engineering centers, vehicle simulators, wind tunnels, and crash-test labs of the world.

A member of the North American Car, Truck, and Utility of the Year jury, Dan also contributes car reviews to Popular Science magazine, serves on the International Engine of the Year jury, and has judged the collegiate Formula SAE competition.

Dan is a winner of the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive writing, as well as the National Motorsports Press Association's award for magazine writing and the Washington Automotive Press Association's Golden Quill award.

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He has held a Sports Car Club of America racing license since 1991, is an SCCA National race winner, two-time SCCA Runoffs competitor in Formula F, and an Old Dominion Region Driver of the Year award winner. Co-drove a Ford Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost to 16 Federation Internationale de l’Automobile-accredited world speed records over distances from just under 1km to over 4,104km at the CERAM test circuit in Mortefontaine, France.

He was also a longtime contributor to the Society of Automotive Engineers' Automotive Engineering International magazine.

He specializes in analyzing technical developments, particularly in the areas of motorsports, efficiency, and safety.

He has been published in The New York Times, NBC News, Motor Trend, Popular Mechanics, The Washington Post, Hagerty, AutoTrader.com, Maxim, RaceCar Engineering, AutoWeek, Virginia Living, and others.

Dan has authored books on the Honda S2000 and Dodge Viper sports cars and contributed automotive content to the consumer finance book, Fight For Your Money.

He is a member and past president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers

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