The Skylab was a Human space station active in the late 20th century.
History and specifics
The station was placed into Earth orbit by the United States of America with NASA overseeing the facility. The solar-powered Skylab could house three astronauts. These astronauts were transported to the facility and were returned to Earth by a command/service module from the Apollo program. (TOS novel: Assignment: Eternity)
Skylab launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida in 1973. Converted from the shell of a Saturn V, the station weighed 78 tons, was 29.3 meters long and 7.2 meters in diameter, and completed an orbit every 102 minutes. Facilities included crew quarters, a laboratory, an airlock and a docking adaptor.
Mission crews took detailed photos of Earth with high-resolution cameras and studied the long-term effects of zero gravity on Human health. Three crews visited the station, one of which remained aboard for 84 days and 1,214 orbits.
Newsweek magazine published a report on the launch in 1973. (ST reference: Spaceflight Chronology)
- Skylab was launched on 14 May 1973 and reentered Earth's atmosphere on 11 July 1979. Pete Conrad was a member of Skylab's first crewed mission.
Legacy
In 2364, Geordi La Forge recalled Skylab during a spacewalk when he spotted a similar-looking cylinder he assumed had been used by a larger space station's construction crew. (TNG novel: The Peacekeepers)
Appendices
References
External links
- Skylab article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Skylab article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.