NASA Skylab

Skylab, the United States' first space station, was manned by three separate astronaut crews from May 25, 1973 to February 8, 1974. Its experiments expanded knowledge of Earth, the Sun, stars, and cosmic space; studied the effects of long periods of weightlessness on living organisms, including humans; and developed space processing and manufacturing techniques. Other experiments developed methods and equipment for observing and monitoring Earth to help address pollution, erosion, crop failure, storm destruction, and mineral deletion. Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere on July 11, 1979, disintegrated during reentry, and scattered debris over parts of Australia. It was built for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, with major components and science instrumentation produced by McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Martin Marietta Corporation, Marshall Space Flight Center, Ball Brothers Research Corporation, Bendix, Honeywell, and Perkin-Elmer.

Huntsville, Alabama · United States