Skylab

Launched: 5/14/73

Weight: 100 tons

Lunch Vehicle: Saturn V Rocket
(the last one used.)

Plagued by problems from the beginning.
63 seconds into flight, vibrations ripped off the meteoroid shield.

This shield tore away one of  2 solar panels.
A piece of it wrapped around the one that was still in place.

To compensate, NASA engineered maneuvered the Skylab
so it's Apollo Telescope Mount solar panels faced the sun.

Due to the loss of the meteoroid shield
temperature in the workshop rose to 127 degrees F.

5/25/73
Charles Conrad Jr., Paul Weitz and Joe Kerwin
lift off from Kennedy Space Center.
They use an Apollo capsule and Saturn I-B to rendezvous w/ Skylab.

Space-walks are conducted to deploy a sunshade to cool the workshop.
Temperature is lowered to 75 degrees F.

6/7/73
Second space walk results in repositioning the jammed
solar array to increase power to the workshop.

Workshop suffers from recurring malfunctions.

NASA flew 3 Skylab missions for
a total of 171 days and 13 hrs.

Skylab was then repositioned into a "stable" altitude
and shut down. It was to stay aloft for 8 yrs.

NASA hoped to reactivate it when the economic crisis was over.

1977
Orbit decays and Skylab begins to fall to earth.
World waits for possible catastrophe, if debris strikes populated areas.

7/11/79
Skylab falls to Earth.
Debris is scattered over thousands of square miles.
Some falls in Australia.

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