first American station
Skylab stood as America’s inaugural national space station and, at its launch, the only one in operation. Built from the upper-stage fuselage of a Saturn-1B rocket and clad with aluminum walls and thermal insulation, its living and working spaces were housed inside. On May 14, 1973, Skylab entered orbit aboard a Saturn V, sending American astronauts toward the Moon.
Skylab weighed roughly 90 tons, a heft that would not be surpassed until the Mir program added modules in the 1990s, increasing its mass to about 125 tonnes. Its substantial size accommodated a wide array of scientific instruments, including the Apollo solar observatory. The station housed X-shaped solar panels that enabled simultaneous observations across ultraviolet, visible, and X-ray wavelengths. The X-ray range held special significance because cosmic X-rays cannot penetrate Earth’s atmosphere.
Compared with Soviet space stations, Skylab’s generous interior and comfort stood out. It offered a large volume, with internal compartments measuring around six meters in diameter, a feature that eased routine activities and supported physical training and experimentation in microgravity. In contrast, later stations like the International Space Station operate with a smaller internal diameter, reflecting evolving design philosophies.
Inside, Skylab resembled a compact two-story home rather than a typical cramped outpost. It featured the first space shower in history, a system built around a water injection mechanism, a circular curtain, and a device to collect droplets, which marked a breakthrough in life-support capabilities.
During its operational life, three manned missions visited Skylab. The first, known as Skylab-2, stayed in orbit for 28 days. The crew focused on correcting issues from initial unmanned flights, including a burst solar panel, a jammed second panel, and a shield that had detached, exposing the station to intense heat. The crew manually reset the solar arrays to restore power and then conducted a wide range of experiments and Earth, Sun, and space observations. They also became the first team to return from the orbital platform alive.
Skylab-3 followed, logging 59 days in space. The crew continued repairs while pursuing scientific experiments. Notably, American scientists explored how the human body adapts to extended weightlessness, and the mission carried two female spiders to study web-building in microgravity, revealing surprising differences in the spiders’ networks compared with Earth conditions.
The final mission, Skylab-4, spent 84 days in orbit and participated in a broader psychological experiment that unfolded unintentionally. The trio on board consisted of a veteran mission crew who faced the demanding schedule and the isolation of living in space for an extended period.
working 16 hours a day
The Skylab-4 crew included Gerald Carr, William Pogue, and Edward Gibson. Both Carr and Pogue had military aviation backgrounds before turning to spaceflight, while Gibson was a physicist and engineer. Soon after launch, the team confronted scheduling and workload challenges. Seasickness in weightlessness compounded the effort required to manage the enormous catalog of tasks, materials, and equipment stored aboard the station. The crew navigated a long list of needs while adapting to the delayed timeline tied to program requirements.
With Apollo missions depleted and Shuttle readiness still years away, NASA faced tight timelines. Additional tasks arrived late in the game, and crew members received continuous influxes of instructions by teletype, often numbering in the two-meter range daily. The workload sparked complaints about fatigue and insufficient rest.
In a retrospective account, Pogue described a relentless cycle of moving from one activity to the next, with little opportunity to organize or prepare for subsequent experiments. The feeling of being pressed into the station walls became a recurring sentiment among the crew, influencing the quality of work and the mental state aboard.
Eventually, six weeks into the flight, tensions peaked between the astronauts and Mission Control. Carr recalled the fatigue and insisted that a 16-hour daily pace could not be sustained for 84 days on Earth, let alone in space. This sentiment, captured in interviews and later historical works, reflected a broader desire for more humane scheduling when living and working in orbit.
The crew decided to take a day off, effectively pausing communications with Earth. The press labeled this pause the Skylab strike. The astronauts spent the day contemplating from the wardroom porthole, taking a shower, or simply floating in weightlessness with nothing to do but observe. Mission Control eventually agreed to ease the workload and to limit nighttime missions, acknowledging that time off can be essential for sustained performance. The decision allowed the crew to regain morale and focus during the remaining weeks of the flight. Even with the lighter workload, they captured tens of thousands of images of the Sun and Earth and continued noting solar activity from the platform. The mission set an orbital survival record that would be matched by later space travelers in subsequent programs.
The Skylab experience provided fresh insights into the psychology of long-duration spaceflight. NASA responded by prioritizing rest, encouraging open communication between crews and ground teams, and ensuring that new crewmates would not fly alone. The lesson extended beyond Skylab, influencing crew selection and mission planning for future stations, including the ISS where experienced astronauts bring a broader range of flights and lessons to each expedition.
Some historians question the exact nature of the so-called strike, suggesting that the event may have been amplified by sensational accounts. Yet the episode remains a defining moment in spaceflight history, illustrating how human factors shape scientific achievement under extreme conditions. In July 1979 Skylab re-entered the atmosphere and burned up during an uncontrolled descent as solar activity increased atmospheric density. Without a vehicle to boost the station to a higher orbit, NASA shifted to relying on a temporary platform carried within the Shuttle fleet. The Skylab era thus concluded with a new generation of space infrastructure on the horizon, ready to push further into the cosmos. [1]
References to the Skylab mission continue to inform discussions on crew safety, psychological well-being, and the design of future long-duration habitats. [2]