Category Archives: Space Station

Before the International Space Station and viral videos from space, there was Skylab -- America's first space station.

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Skylab launched into space by the unmanned Saturn V rocket on May 14, 1973 from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

The space station went unmanned for over a week until Commander Charles C. Conrad Jr., Paul J. Weitz and Joseph Kerwin arrived on May 25, 1973.

In the 1977 book "Skylab, Our First Space Station," author Leland F. Belew describes the highlights of Skylab's mission.

According to Belew, the first crew made repairs to the ship that occurred during take-off and conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, as well as medical studies and five student experiments. Two more teams of astronauts made missions to Skylab in July and November of 1973.

Researchers on Skylab performed nearly 300 experiments including studies of the Earth's crust, oceans and surfaces, comets, meteors, planets and stars.

Astronauts were able to study the sun like never before because they could observe X-ray and ultraviolet emissions that could not be examined from Earth. And for the first time, remote parts of the Earth could be accurately measured.

Skylab researchers were able to study physiological and psychological effects from prolonged periods of zero-gravity. A total of 16 biomedical experiments were conducted.

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America's first space station Skylab turns 40

After five months in space, International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield has returned to the planet. While manning the ISS he also created the first music video in space, using a rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." NBC's Brian Williams reports.

By Miriam Kramer, Space.com

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three space travelers successfully touched down on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan on Tuesday, wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station.

Canadianastronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko landed in their Soyuz capsule atabout 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time (10:31 p.m. ET Monday).

"It's beautiful," Romanenko radioed right before landing. "It's morning here."[Astronaut Chris Hadfield's 8 Most Amazing Space Moments]

After the landing, all three had smiles on their faces. "That was quite a ride home," Hadfield said.

The trio's return marks the end of the station's Expedition 35, which Hadfield commanded, and the start of Expedition 36. The landing comes just two days after Marshburn and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy performed an unprecedentedemergency spacewalkto fix a serious ammonia coolant leak on the outside of the station.

The three spacefliers orbited Earth 2,300 times and logged 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) during their 144 days on the station. Romanenko, Hadfield and Marshburn also witnessed the arrival and departure of a few unmanned cargo ships, including SpaceX's Dragon capsule in March.

Hadfield was the first Canadian commander of the space station, and he shared his unique perspective on the planet with everyone back on Earth during his time on the orbiting outpost. The astronaut beamed back a series of videos about life in space, including a music video cover ofDavid Bowie's "Space Oddity,"sung as a goodbye to his space-based home.

Cosmic Log: Space station chief returns home a star

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Space station crewmates head back to Earth

Before the International Space Station existed, before U.S. astronauts shared space on Russia's space station Mir, America's first home in Earth orbit was Skylab.

The converted upper stage of a massive Saturn V moon rocket, Skylab was launched 40 years ago today (May 14). The orbital workshop gave NASA its first experience at establishing a long-duration human presence in space, laying the foundation for American astronauts to take up continuous residency almost three decades later on board the International Space Station (ISS).

On Monday (May 13), NASA commemorated four decades of "life off Earth" and the 40th anniversary of Skylab's launch during a roundtable discussion held at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The event featured Skylab and ISS astronauts, as well as agency managers who are helping to plan the United States' future outposts in space. [Skylab: The First U.S. Space Station (Photos)]

"When these guys went to the final frontier to stay for a long time, they did it as the first ones, the ones who were entering the unknown and to see what it was going to be like and set the stage for us," said astronaut Kevin Ford, who returned from space in March after commanding the International Space Station's Expedition 34. "It is a pleasure for me to be here on the 40th anniversary."

America's first space station

Three crews of three astronauts each launched to the Skylab space station between May and November 1973. Each mission set a record for the amount of time that crewmembers spent in space Skylab 1 for 28 days, Skylab 2 for 59 days and Skylab 3 for 84 days.

"It verified the fact that people could live, work [and] do productive things for long duration, and also took the first steps toward doing the science that we wanted to have aboard," said Owen Garriott, who served as the science pilot for Skylab's second crew.

That astronauts were even able to spend one day aboard Skylab was a testament to the value of having humans in space.

Excessive vibrations during the station's Saturn V liftoff resulted in a critical meteoroid shield being ripped off in flight, which in turn took out one of the orbital workshop's two power-providing solar arrays. Flight controllers moved Skylab's secondary solar panels to face the sun to provide as much electricity as possible, but because of the loss of the debris shield this caused the station's interior to heat up to over 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius).

The effort to "save Skylab" fell to its first crew, who had to quickly prepare for a series of unexpected spacewalks in the short time they had between the station's launch and their own. Despite the very tight schedule, the astronauts successfully deployed a parasol (later augmented by a solar shield) to lower the temperature inside the station and freed a snagged second solar array.

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Skylab Legacy: Space Station Astronauts Reflect on 40 Years of Life Off Earth

NASA will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of Skylab, America's first space station, on Tuesday (May 14), but you might be surprised where this icon of U.S. human spaceflight ended up.

After hosting rotating astronaut crews from 1973-1974, theSkylab space stationeventually fell back to Earth in pieces that landed in Australia. Now, decades later, many of those pieces are on display at Australian museums, offering a fascinating glimpse into America's first stab at living in space.

From May 1973 to February 1974,Skylabsaw a trio of three-man crews take up residence aboard the outpost, before it was abandoned with the plan of possibly using the space shuttle (then under development) to reactivate the laboratory. But with no way to reboost Skylab to a higher orbit to keep it aloft, and delays in getting the shuttle off the ground , the space station re-entered the Earths atmosphere over the southern Indian Ocean in 1979, with pieces landing inland along the south coast of Western Australia. [See more photos of Skylab's remains in Australia]

The mostlyuncontrolled re-entrywas a media sensation at the time, with newspapers offering prizes for the first debris found and to persons impacted by falling pieces. NASA's attempt at sending Skylab into the Indian Ocean, out of harm's way, proved only somewhat successful, and the spacecraft entered several minutes earlier than predicted, slightly off course.

Several large chunks and dozens of smaller pieces of Skylab survived the fiery plunge through the atmosphere and impacted the ground in the Australian outback over a large swath centered around the community of Balladonia on the Nullarbor Plain. The largest pieces included the oxygen tanks designed to keep the crew alive during their stays.

Skylab on display

Visitors can almost missSkylab. Tucked away in a large display case in a small city museum, the remains of what fell from the sky on July 11, 1979, can be found in Esperance, a port town with less than 10,000 inhabitants located 450 miles from Perth, which is the only major city in the western half of the sparsely populated country. Esperance was directly under the path of Skylab's re-entry. [How NASA's Skylab Space Station Worked (Infographic)]

On the outside, the corrugated metal walls and roof of the museum have the appearance of four long warehouses. That's because the Esperance Municipal Museum, founded in 1976 on the site of a former railroad yard, is composed of converted train equipment sheds.

From the main road along the waterfront in Esperance, a small blue and yellow sign hung on the side of the building is all that denotes it as a "museum," and a larger hanging billboard makes note of the main attraction inside: "In 1979, a spaceship crashed over Esperance. We fined them $400 for littering." A stamp next to it reads, "PAID IN FULL."

It's true. The local government slapped NASA with a comical $400 bill for the cleanup, though the U.S. space agency never officially paid up. However, on the 30th anniversary of the crash in 2009, a radio host for Highway Radio in California and Nevada used his program to raise the funds and put a formal end to the complaint. The paycheck now hangs above the remains.

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Skylab's Grave: Remains of 1st American Space Station in Australia

Four decades after the United States' first space station roared into orbit, a second version of the groundbreaking craft may be on the horizon.

NASA launched the Skylab space station40 years ago Tuesday (May 14), turning the modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket into Amerca's first off-Earth astronaut abode. Now, a team of researchers inspired by this recycling ethos has proposed transforming part of another rocket into "Skylab II," which could become the nation's first-ever manned outpost in deep space.

"This one is a big look backwards 40 years, in fact," said Brand Griffin, an engineer with Gray Research, Inc., who works with the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.[Skylab: The First U.S. Space Station (Photos)]

From Saturn V to the SLS

The original Skylab supported three manned missions in 1973 and 1974, during which three-astronaut crews lived aboard the station for 28, 59 and 84 days, respectively. The 85-ton station continued orbiting Earth until 1979, when it re-entered the planet's atmosphere and famously rained debris down on a stretch of Western Australia.

Nobody was hurt, but the Australian town of Esperance charged NASA $400 for littering. The fine went unpaid until 2009, when California radio DJ Scott Barley took care of it after collecting donations from his listeners.

Like the first Skylab, the proposed Skylab II would be built from a piece of a giant NASA rocket in this case, the Space Launch System(SLS), which the agency is developing to blast astronauts toward asteroids, Mars and other destinations in deep space.

Skylab IIwould make use of the SLS' upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank, which Griffin said would provide an internal volume of 17,481 cubic feet (495 cubic m) roughly equivalent to a two-story house, and significantly more than the original Skylab's 12,713 cubic feet (360 cubic m).

Skylab II could accommodate a crew of four comfortably, and it could carry enough food and gear to last for several years at a time without the need of a resupply mission, Griffin said.

While outfitting the propellant tank as a space station would require some tinkering, its bones are solid and flight-ready, he added.

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40 Years Later, Skylab Space Station Inspires Possible Successor

Video;Astronauts undertake International Space Station spacewalk May 11th 2013
Spacewalk ISS;No Evidence Ammonia leak May 11th 2013 Watch Live: ISS emergency spacewalk to fix ammonia leak MORE Iss spacewalk may 11th 2013 http://www.yout...

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Video;Astronauts undertake International Space Station spacewalk May 11th 2013 - Video

International News - Spacewalk Planned To Fix Space Station Leak : Nasa
Two astronauts will make a precedent-setting spacewalk Saturday to try to fix an ammonia leak in the International Space Station #39;s power system. Spacewalks are rarely done on such short notice,...

By: rajnews41

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International News - Spacewalk Planned To Fix Space Station Leak : Nasa - Video

Astronauts Take Spacewalk to Fix Space Station Leak
Astronauts made repairs after NASA discovered flakes of ammonia leaking out of the cooling system on the International Space Station.

By: NewsyScience

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Astronauts Take Spacewalk to Fix Space Station Leak - Video

Daring space walk to fix space station leak
Two U.S. astronauts had just two days to plan a space walk to fix a leak on the International Space Station, but it could take a month to know whether it was successful. Don Dahler reports.

By: CBSNewsOnline

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Daring space walk to fix space station leak - Video

Leaking Ammonia Forces Spacewalk at the Space Station | NASA ISS Science Video
Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - video shows flakes of ammonia ice drifting away from the International Space Station due to an unidentified c...

By: CoconutScienceLab

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Leaking Ammonia Forces Spacewalk at the Space Station | NASA ISS Science Video - Video