Category Archives: Space Station

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation Off The Earth, For The Earth Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:04:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://blogs.nasa.gov?v=4.5.3 https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2016/09/20/astronauts-study-pill-properties-and-laser-heating/ https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2016/09/20/astronauts-study-pill-properties-and-laser-heating/#respond Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:04:15 +0000 http://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/?p=3424

Astronaut Kate Rubins wears a hand-painted spacesuit decorated by patients recovering at the MD Anderson Cancer Center to raise awareness about the benefits of pairing art with medicine.

The Expedition 49 crew is helping the pharmaceutical industry improve drug design while also helping researchers understand the properties of materials burning at high temperatures. The International Space Stations microgravity environment helps reveal new characteristics of physical and organic processes cloaked by Earths gravity. Scientists, doctors and engineers use these observations to design products and procedures to benefit humans living on Earth and in space.

The new Eli Lilly-Hard to Wet Surfaces experiment is researching how different materials dissolve in water. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins set up a camera to automatically photograph the process today using six samples. Results could benefit how pills are designed improving drug delivery inside the body.

Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi swapped samples for the Group Combustion experiment inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace. The furnace is a device that observes and measures the thermophysical properties of materials heated to high temperatures using lasers. Onishi is also closing out the Mouse Epigenetics study and cleaning up the Cell Biology Experiment Facility. The life science facility contains an incubator with an artificial gravity generator.

Commander Anatoly Ivanishin continued checking out Russian laptop computers and life support systems today. The veteran cosmonaut also transferred gear from a cargo ship and wrapped up a 24-hour data recording session for the Cosmocard blood circulation study.

Portions of the International Space Stations solar arrays and Japans Kibo lab module are seen as it orbits Sept. 13, 2016, over the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

The three Expedition 49 crew members orbiting Earth right now are moving ahead today with human research and the upkeep of the International Space Station. In the meantime, Roscosmos officials have decided to postpone the Sept. 23 launch of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko aboard the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft.

Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin worked throughout the stations Russian segment Monday working on life support systems, checking computers and testing video gear. He also set up an electrocardiogram to begin recording data for 24 hours for the Cosmocard blood circulation study.

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi partnered up for the Body Measures experiment exploring how living in space changes body shape and size. The study involves video-taping, photographing and tape measuring the circumference of a crew members arms, legs and chest and comparing it with data recorded before, during and after a space mission.

The pair also performed a series of interactive tasks on a touchscreen tablet for the Fine Motor Skills study. That experiment explores how astronauts interact with new technologies which may help engineers design new spacesuits and spacecraft for future long-term space missions.

Get weekly video highlights at:http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Expedition 49-50 crew members (from left) Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko.

Roscosmos decided to postpone the planned September 23, 2016 launch of the spacecraft Soyuz MS 02 for technical reasons after routine tests at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch date of the spacecraft will be announced later.

Please visit the Roscosmos website for the latest information.

A crew member photographed this portion of the Indian Ocean about 650 miles south of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Credit: Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

The Expedition 49 trio is looking at plant growth today after the successful deployment of eight nanosatellites Thursday. The crew also inspected a treadmill and trained to care for a sick or injured crew member.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins swapped seeds in a cultivator for the Plant RNA Regulation experiment. Some seeds were stowed in a science freezer, the other seeds will be grown in the cultivator for a week to research how microgravity changes a plants gene expression. Observations may provide new insights on how to grow plants for food and oxygen on long-term spaceflights.

Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi thoroughly inspected a treadmill inside the Tranquility module photographing its parts for analysis on the ground. Onishi also took a refresher course to stay up to date on medical procedures and gear in case of a crew illness or injury.

Commander Anatoly Ivanishin collected data from a radiation detection experiment and worked maintenance on a variety of Russian systems throughout Friday.

Get weekly video highlights at:http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Expedition 49 crew members Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin work inside the Zvezda service module.

The Expedition 49 trio orbiting Earth inside the International Space Station are less than two weeks away from welcoming three new crew members. As the station residents wait for the new arrivals, they continue conducting space science and maintaining station systems.

Commander Anatoly Ivanishin with Flight Engineers Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi have been living in space for two months. They are awaiting reinforcements scheduled to join them two days after a Sept. 23 launch from Kazakhstan. Soyuz Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineers Shane Kimbrough and Andrey Borisenko are reviewing their flight plan and familiarizing themselves with the new Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft.

Back inside the space station, Commander Ivanishin started his day researching how crew activities affect the station structure and exploring how the circulatory system adapts to microgravity. Afterward, he setup a laptop computer and worked on more science and Russian maintenance tasks.

Onishi setup some simple experiments today to show how space affects the flight of a paper plane, a spinning ball and buoyancy among other phenomena. The results were videotaped for sharing to Asian audiences to promote the understanding of spaceflight.

Rubins installed a Phase Change Heat Exchanger into an experiment rack. The new Phase Change HX payload will test ways to regulate thermal conditions on future spacecraft.

Get weekly video highlights at:http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

Expedition 49-50 crew members (from left) Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko arrive at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: RSC Energia

As one crew gets used to Earths gravity after 172 days in space, another crew is preparing to launch to the International Space Station in just over two weeks.

Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams arrived in the United States just 24 hours after landing Tuesday evening in Kazakhstan and completing his mission. His Expedition 48 crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, who were seated next to each other in the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft, have returned to their home space agency Roscosmos in Russia. Williams has completed one shuttle mission and his third station mission accumulating 534 days in space a NASA astronaut record.

They will soon be replaced by another trio of Expedition 49-50 crew members who have arrived at their launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko will launch Sept. 23 on a two-day trip to the space station. They are in final preparations for a mission scheduled to last until Feb. 25, 2017.

Back in space, the Expedition 48-49 crew consisting of Commander Anatoly Ivanishin and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi are continuing science operations and maintenance of the orbital laboratory. Rubins continued more DNA sequencing work today and inspected emergency equipment. Onishi cleaned ventilation fans and measured air flow. Ivanishin worked on the Pilot-T experiment exploring how a crew member adapts to the working conditions of a long-term space mission.

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams rests just minutes after landing in Kazakhstan with fellow crew members Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka. Credit: NASA TV

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos landed their Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 9:13 p.m. EDT. Russian recovery teams are helping the crew exit the Soyuz spacecraft and adjust to gravity after their stay in space. The trio will be transported by helicopter to Karaganda where they will split up, with Williams returning to Houston in a NASA jet, while Ovchinin and Skripochka are flown back to their training base at Star City, Russia.

Williams was instrumental in preparing the station for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. The first International Docking Adapter was installed during a spacewalk by Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Kate Rubins Aug. 19. Outfitted with a host of sensors and systems, the adapters main purpose is to connect spacecraft bringing astronauts to the station in the future. Its first users are expected to be Boeings CST-100 Starliner and SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft, now in development in partnership with NASA.

During his time on the orbital complex, Williams ventured outside the confines of the space station for a second spacewalk with Rubins to retract a spare thermal control radiator and install two new high-definition cameras.

Together, the Expedition 48 crew members contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanitys only orbiting laboratory.

The crew members also welcomed five cargo spacecraft during their stay. Williams was involved in the grapple of Orbital ATKs Cygnus spacecraft in March, the companys fourth commercial resupply mission, and SpaceXs eighth Dragon spacecraft cargo delivery in April, and welcomed a second Dragon delivery in July. Two Russian ISS Progress cargo craft also docked to the station in April and July delivering tons of supplies.

The Expedition 48 trio launched to the space station in March 2016. With the conclusion of his fourth trip to the International Space Station, Williams has accrued 534 days in space, the most by any U.S. astronaut in history.

Expedition 49 continues operating the station with Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos in command. He, Rubins, and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will operate the station for more than two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members.

Shane Kimbrough of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch Sept. 23, U.S. time, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crew members, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images, videos and features from the station on social media at:

https://www.facebook.com/ISS http://instagram.com/iss http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen slowly departing away from the International Space Station. NASA TV

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos undocked from the International Space Station at 5:51 p.m. EDT to begin their trip home. Ovchinin, the Soyuz commander, is at the controls of the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft.

The crew is scheduled to land at 9:13 p.m. southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

The Expedition 49 crew members, Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, and astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will operate the station for more than two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members.

NASA TV will air live coverage of the Soyuz TMA-20M deorbit burn and landing beginning at 8 p.m. Watch live at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crews, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images, videos and features from the station on social media at:

https://www.facebook.com/ISS http://instagram.com/iss http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

Astronaut Jeff Williams (front row left) handed command of the International Space Station to cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin (back row center) Monday Sept. 5. Credit: NASA TV

At 2:42 p.m. EDT, the Soyuz hatch closed between the International Space Station and the TMA-20M spacecraft. Expedition 48 crew members Jeff Williams of NASA and his Russian crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos are preparing to undock at 5:51 p.m. NASA Television will provide coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The deorbit burn is targeted for 8:21 p.m. and will lead to a landing at 9:13 p.m. southeast of Dzezkazgan in Kazakhstan. NASA TV coverage of deorbit and landing begins at 8 p.m. Watch live at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The return of Expedition 48 will wrap up 172 days in space for the crew since their launch in March 2016. Williams will return to Earth having accrued 534 days in space on his four missions dating back to 2000, the most days by any U.S. astronaut in history.

Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crew members, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images, videos and features from the station on social media at:

https://www.facebook.com/ISS http://instagram.com/iss http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

Today is homecoming day for NASA astronaut Jeff Williams (shown above) and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka. The Expedition 48 trio has been in space since March 18.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and his Russian crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos are scheduled to return to Earth today at 9:13 p.m. EDT (7:13 a.m. Kazakhstan time, Sept. 7). The trio will land in their Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

At this time, there are no concerns or issues being worked, and hatch closure is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. NASA Television will provide coverage beginning at 2:15 p.m.

Together, the Expedition 48 crew members contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanitys only orbiting laboratory.

During his time on station, Williams surpassed former NASA astronaut Scott Kellys U.S. record of time spent in space. He returns to Earth with 534 total days in space, passing Kellys record of 520 days by two weeks.

Williams handed over command of the space station to cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos on Monday, Sept. 5. When the spacecraft undocks from the station, Expedition 49 formally will begin.

NASA Television coverage for Soyuz activities Sept. 6 are listed below. Watch live online at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Scheduled Exp. 48 Timeline and NASA TV Coverage

Time EDT Event

2:15 p.m. NASA TV Coverage of Exp. 48 Farewell and Hatch Closure Begins

2:30 p.m. Soyuz TMA-20M/Space Station Hatch Closure

5:30 p.m. NASA TV Coverage of Soyuz Undocking Begins

5:50 p.m. Soyuz Undock Command Sent 5:51 p.m. Soyuz Undocking From ISS 5:54 p.m. Separation Burn 1 5:55 p.m. Separation Burn 2

8 p.m. NASA TV Coverage of Deorbit Burn and Landing

8:21 p.m. Soyuz Deorbit Burn (4 minutes, 41 seconds duration) 8:48 p.m. Soyuz Module Separation (altitude ~87 miles) 8:50 p.m. Sunrise at the Landing Site in Kazakhstan 8:51 p.m. Soyuz Atmospheric Entry (altitude ~62 miles) 8:59 p.m. Command to Open Chutes (altitude 6.6 miles) 9:13 p.m. Exp. 48 Soyuz TMA-20M Landing Southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan

Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crew members, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images, videos and features from the station on social media at:

https://www.facebook.com/ISS http://instagram.com/iss http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

Read more from the original source:
Space Station - NASA

First-time flier Kate Rubins and veteran spacewalker Jeff Williams will venture outside the International Space Station this morning (Aug. 19) to install a massive, crucial piece of machinery:a vital new docking port that will allow private space taxis to link up with the station on future missions.

The spacewalk is slated to begin at 8:05 a.m. EDT (1205 GMT), NASA officials said during a news briefing. You can watch the spacewalk live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

This spacewalk marks a first for Rubins, and the fourth of Williams' career. The two astronauts plan to spend about 6.5 hours outside the station installing this new heavy piece of machinery, known as an International Docking Adapter (IDA), which arrived at the station on July 20 aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. [The Most Memorable Spacewalks in History (Photo Gallery)]

The IDA being installed today is the first of two devices that will be attached to the space station as part of a new international standard that allows a variety of vehicles to dock with the orbiting lab independently rather than being grappled with the station's robotic arm.

Williams, Expedition 48's commander, will head out first, and Rubins will hand off a bag of IDA installation tools before stepping outside the station.

"This EVA [spacewalk] that we are going to be doing on Friday represents a very significant milestone on the path to establishing a commercial crew capability on board the ISS," Kenny Todd, the station's mission operations integration manager, said at the news briefing Monday (Aug. 15). "We're very excited to put this piece of hardware on the front of the station."

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams are all set to venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) tomorrow (Aug. 19) to install the first International Docking Adapter. This addition to the ISS will allow future private space vehicles to hook up to the station.

Multiple previous spacewalks paved the way for today's installation. During four EVAs (extravehicular activity) performed earlier this year, and in 2015, astronauts routed cables for the docking adapter and installed a control panel, among other maintenance tasks.

On Wednesday (Aug. 17), the ground robotics team successfully removed the IDA from the Dragon spacecraft's trunk using the space station's robotic arm, and positioned it 3 feet (0.9 meters) from the front of the port. This morning, prior to the start of the spacewalk, the ground crew used the arm to move the IDA closer to the port, so that it would be ready to be installed by Williams and Rubins.

The International Docking Adapter as seen before its launch to the International Space Station.

The new IDA, which measures 7.8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter, will allow for larger crews to launch from all different places around Earth and dock with the space station automatically. Boeing and SpaceX have contracts with NASA to send astronauts to the space station in 2017.

If all goes according to plan, the spacewalkers will complete some additional tasks after hooking up the IDA. Williams and Rubins will install thermal covers, as well as set up mirrors that will allow future space taxis to autonomously navigate, align and connect with the space station properly. The team will also route some additional cables for the second docking adapter, which is expected to fly up to the space station next year.

The International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by humans. Let's see how much you know about the basics of this science laboratory in the sky.

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Cosmic Quiz: Do You Know the International Space Station?

The International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by humans. Let's see how much you know about the basics of this science laboratory in the sky.

On Sept. 1, a second EVA will be conducted to perform more work on the IDA, during which astronauts will retract one of the station's thermal radiators.

Williams and Rubins are part of a six-member space station crew. They arrived at the station on July 9, and are joined by Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka, Alexey Ovchinin and Anatoly Ivanishin.

Visit Space.com later today for complete coverage of the spacewalk and a final wrap-up of the day's orbital activities.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Original post:
Astronauts Taking Spacewalk to Install New Space Station ...

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Space Adventures, Ltd. | Home

The International Space Station is an orbiting laboratory and construction site that synthesizes the scientific expertise of 16 nations to maintain a permanent human outpost in space.

While floating some 240 miles (390 kilometers) above Earth's surface, the space station has hosted a rotating international crew since November 2000.

Astronauts and supplies are ferried by the U.S. space shuttles and the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Astronauts who reach the facility aboard one of these missions typically live and work in orbit for about six months.

Simply by spending time in orbit, astronauts reveal much more about how humans can live and work in space. Crews have learned the difficulties of diet, in a world in which their sense of taste is decreased, and of getting a good night's sleep while secured to a non-floating object.

But the crew is also occupied with a full suite of scientific experiments, the ongoing improvement and construction of the station, and a rigorous regime of physical training. Astronauts must exercise for two hours each day to counteract the detrimental effects of low gravity on the body's skeleton and circulatory system.

Ongoing Construction

The station has been under construction since November of 1998. In that year the first piece of its structure, the Zarya Control Module, was launched into orbit with a Russian Proton rocket. In 2008, the two-billion-dollar science lab Columbus was added to the station, increasing the structure to eight rooms.

The floating facility's design features a series of cylinder modules attached to a larger truss of a dozen segments. The Zarya Module is mainly used for storage and external fuel tanks, while the Zvezda Service Module houses the crew's living quarters and the station's many life-supporting systems. The space station is powered by solar panels and cooled by loops that radiate heat away from the modules. The station's Destiny laboratory functions as a unique floating facility for tests of materials, technologies, and much more. The Columbus lab was designed to house experiments in life sciences, fluid physics, and other fields.

Docking ports allow the station to be visited by a growing variety of spacecraft, and the Quest Airlock enables access for the frequent spacewalks essential to the facility's continuing construction.

Canadarm2 is another important feature of the space station. This Canadian-built apparatus is a large, remote-controlled space arm that functions as a crane and can be utilized for a wide variety of tasks.

The International Space Station may be completed by the end of this decade. When construction is finished, six crew members will be able to live and work in a space larger than a typical five-bedroom house.

Go here to read the rest:
International Space Station - National Geographic

Space Station 13 is a community developed, multiplayer round-based role playing game, where players assume the role of a crewmember on a space station. Together they must keep the station running smoothly, whilst dealing with antagonistic forces who threaten to sabotage the mission.

At the beginning of each round, players select a crew member role on the station. These range from high up positions like the captain and heads of staff, to engineers, scientists, medical doctors, security officers, all the way down to the lower responsibility roles such as the janitor and lowly assistant. At round start, one or more players will be given an antagonistic role at random, and a secret objective thats very likely to cause disruption to the mission at hand.

When the crew arent turning on each other through sheer paranoia, they will face various dangers depending on the round: Sleeper agents hell bent on sabotage, shape-shifting aliens, RPG toting syndicate operatives and more. Not to mention the occupational hazards of working in space, such as decompression, meteor showers, radiation storms, airlock mishaps, rogue AI and catastrophic engine failure.

Continued here:
Space Station 13 | The official website for Space Station 13

STS-88 (Endeavour)/International Space Station (ISS) U.S. Robert Cabana; Frederick Sturckow; Jerry Ross; Nancy Currie; James Newman; Sergey Krikalyov December 415, 1998 linked first two modules of ISS (Zarya [Russia] and Unity [U.S.]) STS-96 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Kent Rominger; Rick Husband; Tamara Jernigan; Ellen Ochoa; Daniel Barry; Julie Payette; Valery Tokarev May 27June 6, 1999 carried supplies to ISS STS-101 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. James Halsell; Scott Horowitz; Mary Weber; Jeffrey Williams; James Voss; Susan Helms; Yuri Usachyov May 1929, 2000 ISS outfitting and repair STS-106 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Terrence Wilcutt; Scott Altman; Edward Lu; Richard Mastracchio; Daniel Burbank; Yury Malenchenko; Boris Morukov September 820, 2000 completed docking of Russian-built Zvezda module to ISS STS-92 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Brian Duffy; Pamela Melroy; Leroy Chiao; William McArthur; Peter Wisoff; Michael Lopez-Alegria; Wakata Koichi October 1124, 2000 delivered Z1 truss to ISS Soyuz TM-31/ISS Russia Yuri Gidzenko; William Shepherd; Sergey Krikalyov October 31, 2000 March 21, 2001 first ISS crew (Expedition 1) STS-97 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Brent Jett; Michael Bloomfield; Joseph Tanner; Marc Garneau; Carlos Noriega November 30 December 11, 2000 mounted solar arrays on Z1 truss STS-98 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Kenneth Cockrell; Mark Polansky; Robert Curbeam; Marsha Ivins; Thomas Jones February 720, 2001 addition of U.S.-built Destiny laboratory module to ISS STS-102 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. James Wetherbee; James Kelly; Andrew Thomas; James Voss; Susan Helms; Yuri Usachyov March 821, 2001 (August 22 [Voss, Helms, Usachyov]) delivery of Expedition 2 crew (Usachyov, Voss, Helms) and ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS STS-100 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Kent Rominger; Jeffrey Ashby; Chris Hadfield; John Phillips; Scott Parazynski; Umberto Guidoni; Yuri Lonchakov April 19May 1, 2001 added Canadian robotic arm Canadarm2 to ISS Soyuz TM-32/ISS Russia Talgat Musabayev; Yury Baturin; Dennis Tito April 28May 6, 2001 first space tourist (Tito) STS-104 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Steven Lindsey; Charles Hobaugh; Michael Gernhardt; Janet Kavandi; James Reilly July 1224, 2001 addition of U.S.-built Quest air lock to ISS STS-105 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Scott Horowitz; Frederick Sturckow; Patrick Forrester; Thomas Barry; Frank Culbertson; Mikhail Tyurin; Vladimir Dezhurov August 1022, 2001 (December 17 [Culbertson, Tyurin, Dezhurov]) delivery of Expedition 3 crew (Culbertson, Tyurin, Dezhurov) and ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS Soyuz TM-33/ISS Russia Viktor Afanasiyev; Claudie Haigner; Konstantin Kozeyev October 2131, 2001 exchange of Soyuz return craft for ISS crew STS-108 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Dominic Gorie; Mark Kelly; Linda Godwin; Daniel Tani; Yury Onufriyenko; Daniel Bursch; Carl Walz December 517, 2001 (June 15, 2002 [Onufriyenko, Bursch, Walz]) delivery of Expedition 4 crew (Onufriyenko, Bursch, Walz) and ESA-built logistics module Raffaello to ISS STS-110 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Michael Bloomfield; Stephen Frick; Rex Walheim; Ellen Ochoa; Lee Morin; Jerry Ross; Steven Smith April 819, 2002 delivered S0 truss to ISS Soyuz TM-34/ISS Russia Yury Gidzenko; Roberto Vittori; Mark Shuttleworth April 25May 5, 2002 first South African in space (Shuttleworth) STS-111 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Kenneth Cockrell; Paul Lockhart; Philippe Perrin; Franklin Chang-Diaz; Peggy Whitson; Valery Korzun; Sergey Treschyov June 519, 2002 (December 7 [Whitson, Korzun, Treschyov]) delivered Expedition 5 crew (Whitson, Korzun, Treschyov) and equipment to ISS STS-112 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Jeffrey Ashby; Pamela Melroy; David Wolf; Sandra Magnus; Piers Sellers; Fyodor Yurchikhin October 718, 2002 delivered S1 truss to ISS Soyuz TMA-1/ISS Russia Sergei Zalyotin; Frank De Winne; Yury Lonchakov October 30 November 10, 2002 exchange of Soyuz return craft for ISS crew STS-113 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. James Wetherbee; Paul Lockhart; Michael Lopez-Alegria; John Herrington; Kenneth Bowersox; Nikolay Budarin; Donald Pettit November 23 December 7, 2002 (May 4, 2003 [Bowersox, Budarin, Pettit]) delivered Expedition 6 crew (Bowersox, Budarin, Pettit) and P1 truss to ISS Soyuz TMA-2/ISS Russia Yury Malchenko; Edward Lu April 26October 28, 2003 Expedition 7 crew to ISS Soyuz TMA-3/ISS Russia Aleksandr Kaleri; Pedro Duque; Michael Foale October 18, 2003 April 30, 2004 (October 28 [Duque]) Expedition 8 crew (Kaleri, Foale) to ISS Soyuz TMA-4/ISS Russia Gennadi Padalka; Andr Kuipers; Michael Fincke April 19October 24, 2004 (April 30 [Kuipers]) Expedition 9 crew (Padalka, Fincke) to ISS Soyuz TMA-5/ISS Russia Salizhan Sharipov; Leroy Chiao; Yury Shargin October 14, 2004 April 24, 2005 (October 24 [Shargin]) Expedition 10 crew (Sharipov, Chiao) to ISS Soyuz TMA-6/ISS Russia Sergey Krikalyov; Roberto Vittori; John Phillips April 15October 11, 2005 (October 24 [Vittori]) Expedition 11 crew (Krikalyov, Phillips) to ISS STS-114 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Eileen Collins; James Kelly; Soichi Noguchi; Stephen Robinson; Andrew Thomas; Wendy Lawrence; Charles Camarda July 26August 9, 2005 first space shuttle flight after Columbia disaster Soyuz TMA-7/ISS Russia Valery Tokarev; William McArthur; Gregory Olsen October 1, 2005 April 8, 2006 (October 11 [Olsen]) Expedition 12 crew (McArthur, Tokarev) to ISS Soyuz TMA-8/ISS Russia Pavel Vinogradov; Jeffrey Williams; Marcos Pontes March 30 September 29, 2006 (April 8 [Pontes]) Expedition 13 crew (Vinogradov, Williams) to ISS; first Brazilian astronaut (Pontes) STS-121 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Steven Lindsey; Mark Kelly; Michael Fossum; Lisa Nowak; Piers Sellers; Stephanie Wilson; Thomas Reiter July 417, 2006 (December 22 [Reiter]) increased ISS crew from two to three (Reiter) STS-115 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Brent Jett; Christopher Ferguson; Joseph Tanner; Daniel Burbank; Heidimarie Stefanyshyn-Piper; Steven MacLean September 921, 2006 attached solar array to ISS Soyuz TMA-9/ISS Russia Mikhail Tyurin; Michael Lopez-Alegria; Anousheh Ansari September 18, 2006 April 21, 2007 (September 29 [Ansari]) Expedition 14 crew (Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin) to ISS STS-116 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Mark Polansky; William Oefelein; Nicholas Patrick; Robert Curbeam; Christer Fuglesang; Joan Higginbotham; Sunita Williams December 922, 2006 (June 22, 2007 [Williams]) connected new solar array to ISS electric system; first Swedish astronaut (Fuglesang); longest spaceflight by a woman (Williams; 194 days, 18 hours) Soyuz TMA-10/ISS Russia Oleg Kotov; Fyodor Yurchikhin; Charles Simonyi April 7October 21, 2007 (April 21 [Simonyi]) Expedition 15 crew (Kotov, Yurchikhin) to ISS STS-117 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Frederick Sturckow; Lee Archambault; Patrick Forrester; Steven Swanson; John Olivas; James Reilly; Clayton Anderson June 822, 2007 (November 7 [Anderson]) delivered S3/S4 truss to ISS STS-118 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Scott Kelly; Charles Hobaugh; Tracy Caldwell; Richard Mastracchio; Dafydd Williams; Barbara Morgan; Benjamin Drew August 821, 2007 delivered S5 truss Soyuz TMA-11/ISS Russia Yury Malenchenko; Peggy Whitson; Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor October 10, 2007 April 19, 2008 (October 21 [Sheikh]) Expedition 16 crew (Whitson, Malenchenko) to ISS; first Malaysian astronaut (Sheikh) STS-120 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Pamela Melroy; George Zamka; Scott Parazynski; Stephanie Wilson; Douglas Wheelock; Paolo Nespoli; Daniel Tani October 23 November 7, 2007 (February 20, 2008 [Tani]) added Harmony node to ISS STS-122 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Stephen Frick; Alan Poindexter; Stanley Love; Leland Melvin; Rex Walheim; Hans Schlegel; Leopold Eyharts February 720, 2008 (March 26 [Eyharts]) added ESA Columbus laboratory module to ISS STS-123 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Dominic Gorie; Gregory Johnson; Robert Behnkne; Michael Foreman; Doi Takao; Richard Linnehan; Garrett Reisman March 1126, 2008 (June 14 [Reisman]) added Canadian robot Dextre to ISS Soyuz TMA-12/ISS Russia Sergey Volkov; Oleg Kononenko; Yi So-Yeon April 8October 24, 2008 (April 19 [Yi]) Expedition 17 crew (Volkov, Kononenko) to ISS; first second-generation cosmonaut (Volkov); first Korean astronaut (Yi) STS-124 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Mark Kelly; Kenneth Ham; Karen Nyberg; Ronald Garan; Michael Fossum; Hoshide Akihiko; Gregory Chamitoff May 31June 14, 2008 (November 30 [Chamitoff]) added Japanese Kibo laboratory module to ISS Soyuz TMA-13/ISS Russia Yuri Lonchakov; Michael Fincke; Richard Garriott October 12, 2008 April 8, 2009 (October 24, 2008 [Garriott]) Expedition 18 crew (Fincke, Lonchakov) to ISS; first second-generation American astronaut (Garriott) STS-126 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Christopher Ferguson; Eric Boe; Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper; Donald Pettit; Stephen Bowen; Robert Kimbrough; Sandra Magnus November 1430, 2008 (March 28, 2009 [Magnus]) delivered equipment that would allow a six-person crew on the ISS STS-119 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Lee Archambault; Dominic Antonelli; John Phillips; Steven Swanson; Joseph Acaba; Richard Arnold; Wakata Koichi March 1528, 2009 (July 31 [Wakata]) added final solar array to ISS Soyuz TMA-14/ISS Russia Gennadi Padalka; Michael Barratt; Charles Simonyi March 26October 11, 2009 (April 8 [Simonyi]) Expeditions 19 and 20 crew (Padalka, Barratt); first repeat space tourist (Simonyi) Soyuz TMA-15/ISS Russia Roman Romanenko; Frank De Winne; Robert Thirsk May 27December 1, 2009 Expeditions 20 and 21 crew; brought ISS to full crew of six STS-127 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Mark Polansky; Douglas Hurley; David Wolf; Julie Payette; Christopher Cassidy; Thomas Marshburn; Timothy Kopra July 1531, 2009 (September 11 [Kopra]) added facility exposed to space to the Japanese Kibo laboratory module STS-128 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Frederick Sturckow; Kevin Ford; Patrick Forrester; John Olivas; Jose Hernandez; Christer Fuglesang; Nicole Stott August 29 September 11, 2009 (November 27 [Stott]) delivery of ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS Soyuz TMA-16/ISS Russia Maksim Suryaev; Jeffrey Williams; Guy Lalibert September 29, 2009 March 18, 2010 (October 11, 2009 [Lalibert]) Expeditions 21 and 22 crew (Suryaev, Williams) STS-129 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Charles Hobaugh; Barry Wilmore; Michael Foreman; Robert Satcher; Randolph Bresnik; Leland Melvin November 1627, 2009 delivery of spare parts to ISS Soyuz TMA-17/ISS Russia Oleg Kotov; Noguchi Soichi; Timothy Creamer December 21, 2009 June 2, 2010 Expeditions 22 and 23 crew STS-130 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. George Zamka; Terry Virts; Kathryn Hire; Stephen Robinson; Robert Behnken; Nicholas Patrick February 821, 2010 installed Tranquility node on ISS Soyuz TMA-18/ISS Russia Aleksandr Skvortsov; Mikhail Korniyenko; Tracy Caldwell-Dyson April 4September 25, 2010 Expeditions 23 and 24 crew STS-131 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Alan Poindexter; James Dutton, Jr.; Dorothy Metcalf- Lindenburger; Stephanie Wilson; Richard Mastracchio; Yamazaki Naoko; Clayton Anderson April 520, 2010 delivery of ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS STS-132 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Kenneth Ham; Dominic Antonelli; Michael Good; Piers Sellers; Stephen Bowen; Garrett Reisman May 1426, 2010 delivery of Russian-built Mini Research Module to ISS Soyuz TMA-19/ISS Russia Fyodor Yurchikhin; Shannon Walker; Douglas Wheelock June 16November 26, 2010 Expeditions 24 and 25 crew Soyuz TMA-01M/ISS Russia Aleksandr Kaleri; Oleg Skripochka; Scott Kelly October 8, 2010 March 16, 2011 Expeditions 25 and 26 crew Soyuz TMA-20/ISS Russia Dmitry Kondratyev; Paolo Nespoli; Catherine Coleman December 15, 2010 May 24, 2011 Expeditions 26 and 27 crew STS-133 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Steven Lindsey; Eric Boe; Benjamin Drew; Michael Barratt; Stephen Bowen; Nicole Stott February 24March 9, 2011 delivery of robot Robonaut 2 and ESA-built Permanent Multipurpose Module to ISS; last flight of Discovery; first astronaut on consecutive shuttle flights (Bowen) Soyuz TMA-21/ISS Russia Aleksandr Samokutyayev; Andrei Borisenko; Ronald Garan April 5September 16, 2011 Expeditions 27 and 28 crew STS-134 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Mark Kelly; Gregory Johnson; Michael Fincke; Gregory Chamitoff; Andrew Feustel; Roberto Vittori May 16June 1, 2011 delivery of Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to ISS; last flight of Endeavour Soyuz TMA-02M/ISS Russia Sergey Volkov; Furukawa Satoshi; Michael Fossum June 7November 22, 2011 Expeditions 28 and 29 crew STS-135 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Christopher Ferguson; Douglas Hurley; Sandra Magnus; Rex Walheim July 821, 2011 delivery of ESA-built Permanent Multipurpose Module to ISS; last flight of Atlantis; last space shuttle flight Soyuz TMA-22/ISS Russia Anton Shkaplerov; Anatoly Ivanishin; Daniel Burbank November 11, 2011 April 27, 2012 Expeditions 29 and 30 crew Soyuz TMA-03M/ISS Russia Oleg Kononenko; Andr Kuipers; Donald Pettit December 21, 2011 July 1, 2012 Expeditions 30 and 31 crew Soyuz TMA-04M/ISS Russia Gennady Padalka; Sergey Revin; Joseph Acaba May 15September 17, 2012 Expeditions 31 and 32 crew Soyuz TMA-05M/ISS Russia Yury Malenchenko; Sunita Williams; Hoshide Akihiko July 15November 19, 2012 Expeditions 32 and 33 crew Soyuz TMA-06M/ISS Russia Oleg Novitsky; Yevgeny Tarelkin; Kevin Ford October 23, 2012 March 16, 2013 Expeditions 33 and 34 crew Soyuz TMA-07M/ISS Russia Roman Romanenko; Chris Hadfield; Thomas Marshburn December 19, 2012 May 14, 2013 Expeditions 34 and 35 crew Soyuz TMA-08M/ISS Russia Pavel Vinogradov; Aleksandr Misurkin; Christopher Cassidy March 28September 11, 2013 Expeditions 35 and 36 crew Soyuz TMA-09M/ISS Russia Fyodor Yurchikhin; Luca Parmitano; Karen Nyberg May 28November 11, 2013 Expeditions 36 and 37 crew Soyuz TMA-10M/ISS Russia Oleg Kotov; Sergey Ryazansky; Michael Hopkins September 25, 2013 March 11, 2014 Expeditions 37 and 38 crew Soyuz TMA-11M/ISS Russia Mikhail Tyurin; Richard Mastracchio; Wakata Koichi November 7, 2013 May 14, 2014 Expeditions 38 and 39 crew Soyuz TMA-12M/ISS Russia Aleksandr Skvortsov; Oleg Artemyev; Steven Swanson March 25, 2014 Expeditions 39 and 40 crew Soyuz TMA-13M/ISS Russia Maksim Surayev; Gregory Wiseman; Alexander Gerst May 28, 2014 Expeditions 40 and 41 crew

Excerpt from:
International Space Station (ISS) - Britannica.com

Skylab Skylab as photographed by its departing final crew (Skylab 4) Station statistics COSPAR ID 1973-027A Call sign Skylab Crew 3 per mission (9 total) Launch May 14, 1973 17:30:00 UTC Launch pad Kennedy Space Center LC-39A Reentry July 11, 1979 16:37:00 UTC near Perth, Australia Mission status Complete; uncontrolled re-entry Mass 150,300lb (68,175kg)[1] w/o Apollo CSM Length 82.4 feet (25.1m) w/o Apollo CSM Width 55.8 feet (17.0m) w/ one solar panel Height 36.3 feet (11.1m) w/ telescope mount Diameter 21.67 feet (6.6m) Pressurised volume 12,417cuft (351.6m3) Perigee 269.7mi (434.0km) Apogee 274.6mi (441.9km) Orbital inclination 50 Orbital period 93.4 min Orbits per day 15.4 Days in orbit 2,249 days Days occupied 171 days Number of orbits 34,981 Distance travelled ~890,000,000 mi (1,400,000,000 km) Statistics as of Re-entry July 11, 1979

Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA and was the United States' first space station. Skylab orbited Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 150,300 pounds (68,175kg).[1] Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the last two manned missions, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by ready to rescue the crew in orbit if it was needed.

The station was damaged during launch when the micrometeoroid shield separated from the workshop and tore away, taking one of two main solar panel arrays with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy. This deprived Skylab of most of its electrical power, and also removed protection from intense solar heating, threatening to make it unusable. The first crew was able to save it in the first in-space major repair, by deploying a replacement heat shade and freeing the jammed solar panels.

Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount, which was a multi-spectral solar observatory, Multiple Docking Adapter (with two docking ports), Airlock Module with EVA hatches, and the Orbital Workshop, the main habitable volume. Electrical power came from solar arrays, as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.

Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. The Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP) was used to view Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended. Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it. However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia. Post-Skylab NASA space laboratory projects included Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir, and Space Station Freedom (later merged into the International Space Station).

Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and other early advocates of manned space travel, expected until the 1960s that a space station would be an important early step in space exploration. Von Braun participated in the publishing of a series of influential articles in Collier's magazine from 1952 to 1954, titled "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!". He envisioned a large, circular station 250 feet (75m) in diameter that would rotate to generate artificial gravity and require a fleet of 7,000-ton (6,500-metric ton) space shuttles for construction in orbit. The 80 men aboard the station would include astronomers operating a telescope, meteorologists to forecast the weather, and soldiers to conduct surveillance. Von Braun expected that future expeditions to the Moon and Mars would leave from the station.[2]:25

The development of the transistor, the solar cell, and telemetry, led in the 1950s and early 1960s to unmanned satellites that could take photographs of weather patterns or enemy nuclear weapons and send them to Earth. A large station was no longer necessary for such purposes, and the United States Apollo program to send men to the Moon chose a mission mode that would not need in-orbit assembly. A smaller station that a single rocket could launch retained value, however, for scientific purposes.[2]:5560

In 1959, von Braun, head of the Development Operations Division at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, submitted his final Project Horizon plans to the U.S. Army. The overall goal of Horizon was to place men on the Moon, a mission that would soon be taken over by the rapidly forming NASA. Although concentrating on the Moon missions, von Braun also detailed an orbiting laboratory built out of a Horizon upper stage,[3]:23 an idea used for Skylab.[3]:9 A number of NASA centers studied various space station designs in the early 1960s. Studies generally looked at platforms launched by the Saturn V, followed up by crews launched on Saturn IB using an Apollo Command/Service Module,[3]:10 or a Gemini capsule[3]:14 on a Titan II-C, the latter being much less expensive in the case where cargo was not needed. Proposals ranged from an Apollo-based station with two to three men, or a small "canister" for four men with Gemini capsules resupplying it, to a large, rotating station with 24 men and an operating lifetime of about five years.[3]:1314 A proposal to study the use of a Saturn S-IVB as a manned space laboratory was documented in 1962 by the Douglas Aircraft Company.[4]

The Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA cooperated closely in many areas of space.[2]:198202 In September 1963, NASA and the DoD agreed to cooperate in building a space station.[3]:17 The DoD wanted its own manned facility, however,[2]:203 and in December it announced Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL), a small space station primarily intended for photo reconnaissance using large telescopes directed by a two-man crew. The station was the same diameter as a Titan II upper stage, and would be launched with the crew riding atop in a modified Gemini capsule with a hatch cut into the heat shield on the bottom of the capsule.[3]:1719[5][6] MOL competed for funding with a NASA station for the next five years[3]:15 and politicians and other officials often suggested that NASA participate in MOL or use the DoD design.[2]:203 The military project led to changes to the NASA plans so that they would resemble MOL less.[3]:17

NASA management was concerned about losing the 400,000 workers involved in Apollo after landing on the moon in 1969.[3]:20,22 A reason von Braun, head of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center during the 1960s, advocated for a smaller station after his large one was not built was that he wished to provide his employees with work beyond developing the Saturn rockets, which would be completed relatively early during Project Apollo.[2]:61 NASA set up the Apollo Logistic Support System Office, originally intended to study various ways to modify the Apollo hardware for scientific missions. The office initially proposed a number of projects for direct scientific study, including an extended-stay lunar mission which required two Saturn V launchers, a "lunar truck" based on the Lunar Module (LEM), a large manned solar telescope using a LEM as its crew quarters, and small space stations using a variety of LEM or CSM-based hardware. Although it did not look at the space station specifically, over the next two years the office would become increasingly dedicated to this role. In August 1965, the office was renamed, becoming the Apollo Applications Program (AAP).[3]:20

As part of their general work, in August 1964 the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) presented studies on an expendable lab known as Apollo "X", short for Apollo Extension System. "Apollo X" would have replaced the LEM carried on the top of the S-IVB stage with a small space station slightly larger than the CSM's service area, containing supplies and experiments for missions between 15 and 45 days' duration. Using this study as a baseline, a number of different mission profiles were looked at over the next six months.

In November 1964, von Braun proposed a more ambitious plan to build a much larger station built from the S-II second stage of a Saturn V. His design replaced the S-IVB third stage with an aeroshell, primarily as an adapter for the CSM on top. Inside the shell was a 10-foot (3.0m) cylindrical equipment section. On reaching orbit, the S-II second stage would be vented to remove any remaining hydrogen fuel, then the equipment section would be slid into it via a large inspection hatch. This became known as a "wet workshop" concept, because of the conversion of an active fuel tank. The station filled the entire interior of the S-II stage's hydrogen tank, with the equipment section forming a "spine" and living quarters located between it and the walls of the booster. This would have resulted in a very large 33-by-45-foot (10.1 by 13.7m) living area. Power was to be provided by solar cells lining the outside of the S-II stage.[3]:22

One problem with this proposal was that it required a dedicated Saturn V launch to fly the station. At the time the design was being proposed, it was not known how many of the then-contracted Saturn Vs would be required to achieve a successful Moon landing. However, several planned Earth-orbit test missions for the LEM and CSM had been canceled, leaving a number of Saturn IBs free for use. Further work led to the idea of building a smaller "wet workshop" based on the S-IVB, launched as the second stage of a Saturn IB.

A number of S-IVB-based stations were studied at MSC from mid-1965, which had much in common with the Skylab design that eventually flew. An airlock would be attached to the hydrogen tank, in the area designed to hold the LEM, and a minimum amount of equipment would be installed in the tank itself in order to avoid taking up too much fuel volume. Floors of the station would be made from an open metal framework that allowed the fuel to flow through it. After launch, a follow-up mission launched by a Saturn IB would launch additional equipment, including solar panels, an equipment section and docking adapter, and various experiments. Douglas Aircraft, builder of the S-IVB stage, was asked to prepare proposals along these lines. The company had for several years been proposing stations based on the S-IV stage, before it was replaced by the S-IVB.[3]:25

On April 1, 1966, MSC sent out contracts to Douglas, Grumman, and McDonnell for the conversion of a S-IVB spent stage, under the name Saturn S-IVB spent-stage experiment support module (SSESM).[3]:30 In May, astronauts voiced concerns over the purging of the stage's hydrogen tank in space. Nevertheless, in late July it was announced that the Orbital Workshop would be launched as a part of Apollo mission AS-209, originally one of the Earth-orbit CSM test launches, followed by two Saturn I/CSM crew launches, AAP-1 and AAP-2.

MOL remained AAP's chief competitor for funds, although the two programs cooperated on technology. NASA considered flying experiments on MOL, or using its Titan IIIC booster instead of the much more expensive Saturn IB. The agency decided that the Air Force station was not large enough, and that converting Apollo hardware for use with Titan would be too slow and too expensive.[3]:4548 The DoD later canceled MOL in June 1969.[3]:109

Design work continued over the next two years, in an era of shrinking budgets.[7] (NASA sought $450 million for Apollo Applications in fiscal year 1967, for example, but received $42 million.)[2]:6465 In August 1967, the agency announced that the lunar mapping and base construction missions examined by the AAP were being canceled. Only the Earth-orbiting missions remained, namely the Orbital Workshop and Apollo Telescope Mount solar observatory.

The success of Apollo 8 in December 1968, launched on the third flight of a Saturn V, made it likely that one would be available to launch a dry workshop.[2]:66 Later, several Moon missions were canceled as well, originally to be Apollo missions 18 through 20. The cancellation of these missions freed up three Saturn V boosters for the AAP program. Although this would have allowed them to develop von Braun's original S-II based mission, by this time so much work had been done on the S-IV based design that work continued on this baseline. With the extra power available, the wet workshop was no longer needed;[3]:109110 the S-IC and S-II lower stages could launch a "dry workshop", with its interior already prepared, directly into orbit.

[1]

A dry workshop simplified plans for the interior of the station.[3]:130Industrial design firm Raymond Loewy/William Snaith recommended emphasizing habitability and comfort for the astronauts by, for example, providing a wardroom for meals and relaxation,[3]:133134 and a window to view Earth and space, although astronauts who participated in Skylab planning were dubious about the designers' focus on areas such as color schemes.[3]:137 Habitability had not previously been an area of concern when building spacecraft, due to their small volume and brief mission durations, but the Skylab missions would last for months.[3]:133 NASA sent a scientist on Jacques Piccard's Ben Franklin submarine in the Gulf Stream in July and August 1969, to learn how six people would live in an enclosed space for four weeks.[3]:139140

Astronauts were uninterested in watching movies on a proposed entertainment center or playing games, but did want books and individual music choices.[3]:137 Food was also important; early Apollo crews complained about its quality, and a NASA volunteer found living on the Apollo food for four days on Earth to be intolerable; its taste and composition, in the form of cubes and squeeze tubes, were unpleasant. Skylab food significantly improved on its predecessors by prioritizing edibility over scientific needs.[3]:141142

Each astronaut had a private sleeping area the size of a small walk-in closet, with a curtain, sleeping bag, and locker.[8]:82 Designers also added a shower[3]:139[8]:80 and a toilet;[3]:152158[8]:30 the latter was both for comfort and to obtain precise urine and feces samples for examination on Earth.[3]:165

Rescuing astronauts from Skylab was possible in the most likely emergency circumstances. The crew could use the CSM to quickly return to Earth if the station suffered serious damage. If the CSM failed, the spacecraft and Saturn IB for the next Skylab mission would have been launched with two astronauts to retrieve the crew; given Skylab's ample supplies, its residents would have been able to wait up to several weeks for the rescue mission.[9]

On August 8, 1969, the McDonnell Douglas Corporation received a contract for the conversion of two existing S-IVB stages to the Orbital Workshop configuration. One of the S-IV test stages was shipped to McDonnell Douglas for the construction of a mock-up in January 1970. The Orbital Workshop was renamed "Skylab" in February 1970 as a result of a NASA contest.[3]:115 The actual stage that flew was the upper stage of the AS-212 rocket (the S-IVB stage - S-IVB 212). The mission computer used aboard Skylab was the IBM System/4Pi TC-1, a relative of the AP-101 Space Shuttle computers. A Saturn V originally produced for the Apollo program before the cancellation of Apollo 18, 19, and 20 was repurposed and redesigned to launch Skylab.[10] The Saturn V's upper stage was removed, but with the controlling Instrument Unit remaining in its standard position.

Skylab was launched on May 14, 1973 by the modified Saturn V. The launch is sometimes referred to as Skylab 1, or SL-1. Severe damage was sustained during launch and deployment, including the loss of the station's micrometeoroid shield/sun shade and one of its main solar panels. Debris from the lost micrometeoroid shield further complicated matters by pinning the remaining solar panel to the side of the station, preventing its deployment and thus leaving the station with a huge power deficit.[3]:253255

Immediately following Skylab's launch, Pad A at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 was deactivated, and construction proceeded to modify it for the Space Shuttle program, originally targeting a maiden launch in March 1979. The manned missions to Skylab would occur from Launch Pad 39B.

Three manned missions, designated SL-2, SL-3 and SL-4, were made to Skylab. The first manned mission, SL-2, launched on May 25, 1973 atop a Saturn IB and involved extensive repairs to the station. The crew deployed a parasol-like sunshade through a small instrument port from the inside of the station bringing station temperatures down to acceptable levels and preventing overheating that would have melted the plastic insulation inside the station and released poisonous gases. This solution was designed by NASA's "Mr. Fix It" Jack Kinzler, who won the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts. The crew conducted further repairs via two spacewalks (extra-vehicular activity, or EVA). The crew stayed in orbit with Skylab for 28 days. Two additional missions followed, with the launch dates of July 28, 1973 (SL-3) and November 16, 1973 (SL-4), and mission durations of 59 and 84 days, respectively. The last Skylab crew returned to Earth on February 8, 1974.

Skylab orbited Earth 2,476 times during the 171 days and 13 hours of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. Astronauts performed ten spacewalks, totaling 42 hours and 16 minutes. Skylab logged about 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments, 127,000 frames of film of the Sun and 46,000 of Earth.[3]:340 Solar experiments included photographs of eight solar flares, and produced valuable results[8]:155 that scientists stated would have been impossible to obtain with unmanned spacecraft.[3]:342344 The existence of the Sun's coronal holes were confirmed because of these efforts.[3]:357 Many of the experiments conducted investigated the astronauts' adaptation to extended periods of microgravity.

A typical day began at 6 AM Central Time Zone.[3]:307308 Although the toilet was small and noisy, both veteran astronautswho had endured earlier missions' rudimentary waste-collection systemsand rookies complimented it.[3]:165,307[8]:80[12] The first crew enjoyed taking a shower once a week, but found drying themselves in weightlessness[12] and vacuuming excess water difficult; later crews usually cleaned themselves daily with wet washcloths instead of using the shower. Astronauts also found that bending over in weightlessness to put on socks or tie shoelaces strained their stomach muscles.[3]:306308

Breakfast began at 7 AM. Astronauts usually stood to eat, as sitting in microgravity also strained their stomach muscles. They reported that their foodalthough greatly improved from Apollowas bland and repetitive, and weightlessness caused utensils, food containers, and bits of food to float away; also, gas in their drinking water contributed to flatulence. After breakfast and preparation for lunch, experiments, tests and repairs of spacecraft systems and, if possible, 90 minutes of physical exercise followed; the station had a bicycle and other equipment, and astronauts could jog around the water tank. After dinner, which was scheduled for 6 PM, crews performed household chores and prepared for the next day's experiments. Following lengthy daily instructions (some of which were up to 15 meters long) sent via teleprinter, the crews were often busy enough to postpone sleep.[3]:309,334[13]:27

Each Skylab mission set a record for the amount of time astronauts spent in space. The station offered what a later study called "a highly satisfactory living and working environment for crews", with enough room for personal privacy.[13]:24 Although it had a dart set,[14]playing cards, and other recreational equipment in addition to books and music players, the window with its view of Earth became the most popular way to relax in orbit.[8]:7980,134135

Overview of most major experiments:[15] Skylab 3 carried several more experiments, such as to observe Comet Kohoutek.

Skylab was abandoned after the end of the SL-4 mission in February 1974, but to welcome visitors the crew left a bag filled with supplies and left the hatch unlocked.[16] NASA discouraged any discussion of additional visits due to the station's age,[3]:335,361 but in 1977 and 1978, when the agency still believed the Space Shuttle would be ready by 1979, it completed two studies on reusing the station.[13]:3-1[16] By September 1978, the agency believed Skylab was safe for crews, with all major systems intact and operational.[13]:3-2 It still had 180 man-days of water and 420 man-days of oxygen, and astronauts could refill both;[16] the station could hold up to about 600 to 700 man-days of drinkable water and 420 man-days of food.[13]:27

The studies cited several benefits from reusing Skylab, which one called a resource worth "hundreds of millions of dollars"[13]:113 with "unique habitability provisions for long duration space flight."[13]:311 Because no more operational Saturn V rockets were available after the Apollo program, four to five shuttle flights and extensive space architecture would have been needed to build another station as large as Skylab's 12,400 cubic feet (350m3) volume.[13]:1-12 to 1-13 Its ample sizemuch greater than that of the shuttle alone, or even the shuttle plus Spacelab[13]:28was enough, with some modifications, for up to seven astronauts[13]:231 of both sexes,[13]:314 and experiments needing a long duration in space;[13]:113 even a movie projector for recreation was possible.[13]:311

Proponents of Skylab's reuse also said repairing and upgrading Skylab would provide information on the results of long-duration exposure to space for future stations.[16] The most serious issue for reactivation was stationkeeping, as one of the station's gyroscopes had failed[3]:361 and the attitude control system needed refueling; these issues would need EVA to fix or replace. The station had not been designed for extensive resupply. However, although it was originally planned that Skylab crews would only perform limited maintenance[8]:34 they successfully made major repairs during EVA, such as the SL-2 crew's deployment of the solar panel[8]:7375 and the SL-4 crew's repair of the primary coolant loop.[3]:317[8]:130[13]:321 The SL-2 crew fixed one item during EVA by, reportedly, "hit[ting] it with [a] hammer."[8]:89

Some studies also said, beyond the opportunity for space construction and maintenance experience, reactivating the station would free up shuttle flights for other uses,[13]:113 and reduce the need to modify the shuttle for long-duration missions.[13]:2-9 to 2-10 Even if the station were not manned again, went one argument, it would serve as a useful experimental platform.[13]:261

The reactivation would likely have occurred in four phases:[16]

The first three phases would have required about $60 million in 1980s dollars, not including launch costs.

After a boost of 6.8 miles (10.9km) by SL-4's Apollo CSM before its departure in 1974, Skylab was left in a parking orbit of 269 miles (433km) by 283 miles (455km)[3]:361 that was expected to last until at least the early 1980s, based on estimates of the 11-year sunspot cycle that began in 1976.[3]:361[20] NASA began considering the potential risks of a space station reentry as early as 1962, but decided to not incorporate a retrorocket system in Skylab due to cost and acceptable risk.[3]:127129

The spent 49-ton Saturn V S-II stage which had launched Skylab in 1973 remained in orbit for almost two years, and made an uncontrolled reentry on January 11, 1975.[21] Some debris, most prominently the five heavy J-2 engines, likely survived to impact in the North Atlantic Ocean. Although this event did not receive heavy media or public attention, it was followed closely by NASA and the Air Force, and helped emphasize the need for improved planning and public awareness for Skylab's eventual reentry.[citation needed]

British mathematician Desmond King-Hele of the Royal Aircraft Establishment predicted that Skylab would de-orbit and crash to earth due to increased solar activity. NASA initially denied this but accepted after his calculations were checked.[citation needed] Greater-than-expected solar activity[3]:362 heated the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere and increased drag on Skylab. By late 1977, NORAD accurately forecast a reentry in mid-1979;[20] a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist criticized NASA for using an inaccurate model for the second most-intense sunspot cycle in a century, and for ignoring NOAA predictions published in 1976.[3]:362363

The reentry of the USSR's nuclear powered Cosmos 954 in January 1978, and the resulting radioactive debris fall in northern Canada, drew more attention to Skylab's orbit. Although Skylab did not contain radioactive materials, the State Department warned NASA about the potential diplomatic repercussions of station debris.[3]:363Battelle Memorial Institute forecast that up to 25 tons of metal debris could land in 500 pieces over an area 4,000 miles long and 1,000 miles wide. The lead-lined film vault, for example, might land intact at 400 feet per second.[22]

Ground controllers re-established contact with Skylab in March 1978[20] and recharged its batteries.[23] Although NASA worked on plans to reboost Skylab with the Space Shuttle through 1978 and the TRS was almost complete, the agency gave up in December when it became clear that the shuttle would not be ready in time;[3]:363367[17] its first flight, STS-1, did not occur until April 1981. Also rejected were proposals to launch the TRS using one or two unmanned rockets[16] or to attempt to destroy the station with missiles.[22]

Skylab's demise was an international media event, with merchandising of T-shirts and hats with bullseyes,[22] wagering on the time and place of re-entry, and nightly news reports. The San Francisco Examiner offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab delivered to its offices; the competing Chronicle offered $200,000 if a subscriber suffered personal or property damage.[23] NASA calculated that the odds of station re-entry debris hitting any human were 1 to 152 and when multiplied by 4 billion becomes 1 in 600 billion for a specific human,[24] although the odds of debris hitting a city of 100,000 or more were 1 to 7 and special teams were readied to head to any country hit by debris and requesting help.[23]

We assume that Skylab is on the planet Earth, somewhere.

In the hours before re-entry, ground controllers adjusted Skylab's orientation to try to minimize the risk of re-entry on a populated area.[23] They aimed the station at a spot 810 miles (1,300km) south southeast of Cape Town, South Africa, and re-entry began at approximately 16:37 UTC, July 11, 1979.[3]:371 The Air Force provided data from a secret tracking system able to monitor the reentry.[25] The station did not burn up as fast as NASA expected, however. Due to a 4% calculation error, debris landed southeast of Perth, Western Australia,[3]:371 and was found between Esperance and Rawlinna, from 31 to 34S and 122 to 126E, about 130150km radius around Balladonia. Residents and an airline pilot saw dozens of colorful fireworks-like flares as large pieces broke up in the atmosphere.[22] The Shire of Esperance facetiously fined NASA A$400 for littering, a fine which remained unpaid for 30 years.[26] The fine was paid in April 2009, when radio show host Scott Barley of Highway Radio raised the funds from his morning show listeners and paid the fine on behalf of NASA.[27][28]

Seventeen-year-old Stan Thornton found 24 pieces of Skylab at his home in Esperance. A Philadelphia businessman flew him, his parents, and his girlfriend to San Francisco, where he collected the Examiner prize.[3]:371[22] In a coincidence for the organizers, the annual Miss Universe pageant was scheduled to be held a few days later, on July 20, 1979 in Perth. A large piece of Skylab debris was displayed on the stage.[29] Analysis of the debris showed that the station had not disintegrated until 10 miles above the Earth, much lower than expected.[22]

After the demise of Skylab, NASA focused on the reusable Spacelab module, an orbital workshop that could be deployed with the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth. The next American major space station project was Space Station Freedom, which was merged into the International Space Station in 1993, and launched starting in 1998. Shuttle-Mir was another project, and led to the U.S. funding Spektr, Priroda, and the Mir Docking Module in the 1990s.

Skylab 5 would have been a short 20-day mission to conduct scientific experiments and boost Skylab into a higher orbit. Vance Brand (commander), William B. Lenoir (science pilot), and Don Lind (pilot) would have been the crew for this mission, with Brand and Lind being the prime crew for the Skylab Rescue flights.[30] Brand and Lind also trained for a mission that would have aimed Skylab for a controlled deorbit.[25]

In addition to the flown Skylab space station, a second flight-quality backup Skylab space station had been built during the program. NASA considered using it for a second station in May 1973 or later, to be called Skylab B (S-IVB 515), but decided against it. Launching another Skylab with another Saturn V rocket would have been very costly, and it was decided to spend this money on the development of the Space Shuttle instead. The backup is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

A full-size training mock-up once used for astronaut training is located at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center visitor's center in Houston, Texas. Another full-size training mock-up is at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Originally displayed indoors, it was subsequently stored outdoors for several years to make room for other exhibits. To mark the 40th anniversary of the Skylab program, the Orbital Workshop portion of the trainer was restored and moved into the Davidson Center in 2013.[31][32] NASA transferred the backup Skylab to the National Air and Space Museum in 1975. On display in the Museum's Space Hall since 1976, the orbital workshop has been slightly modified to permit viewers to walk through the living quarters.[33]

The numerical identification of the manned Skylab missions was the cause of some confusion. Originally, the unmanned launch of Skylab and the three manned missions to the station were numbered SL-1 through SL-4. During the preparations for the manned missions, some documentation was created with a different scheme -- SLM-1 through SLM-3for those missions only. William Pogue credits Pete Conrad with asking the Skylab program director which scheme should be used for the mission patches, and the astronauts were told to use 1-2-3, not 2-3-4. By the time NASA administrators tried to reverse this decision, it was too late, as all the in-flight clothing had already been manufactured and shipped with the 1-2-3 mission patches.[34]

From 1966 to 1974, the Skylab program cost a total of $2.2 billion or $10 billion in 2010 dollars with inflation. As its three three-man crews spent 510 total man-days in space, each man-day cost approximately $20 million in 2010 dollars, compared to $7.5 million for the International Space Station.[35]

An astronaut mannequin dines aboard the backup Skylab at the Smithsonian NASM.

SkyLab commemorative stamp, Issue of 1974. The commemorative stamp reflects initial repairs to the station, including the parasol sunshade.

Vanguard (T-AGM-19) seen as a NASA Skylab tracking ship. Note the tracking radar and telemetry antennas.

Robbins Medallions issued for Skylab Missions.

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