On May 14, 1973, NASA launched Skylab, the first American space station.
Skylab orbited Earth for six years and supported three crewed missions during which astronauts conducted hundreds of science experiments. Skylab was considered a success overall, but it got off to a pretty rocky start. It lifted off on a Saturn V rocket from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About a minute into the launch, its micrometeoroid shield accidentally deployed and flew off, and it took out one of the solar panels along the way. Debris from that accident then got stuck in another solar array and jammed it shut, leaving Skylab without any solar power. Thankfully, it still had fuel cells to keep it barely running until astronauts could come to save the day. But to make matters worse, the missing micrometeoroid shield was also designed to be a heat shield, so Skylab was getting dangerously hot. The first crewed Skylab mission arrived 12 days later with a new replacement heat shade, and they were able to fix the jammed solar panel and get the station up and running.
Skylab orbited Earth for six years and supported three crewed missions during which astronauts conducted hundreds of science experiments. Skylab was considered a success overall, but it got off to a pretty rocky start. It lifted off on a Saturn V rocket from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About a minute into the launch, its micrometeoroid shield accidentally deployed and flew off, and it took out one of the solar panels along the way. Debris from that accident then got stuck in another solar array and jammed it shut, leaving Skylab without any solar power. Thankfully, it still had fuel cells to keep it barely running until astronauts could come to save the day. But to make matters worse, the missing micrometeoroid shield was also designed to be a heat shield, so Skylab was getting dangerously hot. The first crewed Skylab mission arrived 12 days later with a new replacement heat shade, and they were able to fix the jammed solar panel and get the station up and running.
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00:00On this day in space.
00:04On May 14, 1973, NASA launched Skylab, the first American space station.
00:09Skylab orbited Earth for six years and supported three crewed missions,
00:12during which astronauts conducted hundreds of science experiments.
00:15Skylab was considered a success overall, but it got off to a pretty rocky start.
00:19It lifted off on a Saturn V rocket from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
00:24About a minute into the launch, its micrometeoroid shield accidentally deployed and flew off,
00:29and it took out one of the solar panels along the way.
00:32Debris from that accident then got stuck in another solar array and jammed it shut,
00:36leaving Skylab without any solar power.
00:39Thankfully, it still had fuel cells to keep it barely running until astronauts could come to save the day.
00:45But to make matters worse, the missing micrometeoroid shield was also designed to be a heat shield,
00:50so Skylab was getting dangerously hot.
00:53The first crewed Skylab mission arrived 12 days later with a new replacement heat shade,
00:57and they were able to fix the jammed solar panel and get the station up and running.
01:01And that's what happened on this day in space.
01:04The next day in space is just a few days after the mission.
01:05The first crewed Skylab was in the space with a bright red flag struck away.
01:06In the space with a 3-person cell of the bay in the sky.
01:10The second crewed Skylab was in the space with a 2-person tower and was a 7-7-1 in the space.
01:19The third crewed Skylab station had to be 5-7-0 in the space.
01:23The third crewed Skylab was only 2-person tower.