Skylab (redirected from Sky lab)

Skylab: see space exploration; space station.

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Skylab

First U.S. space station. Launched into Earth orbit in 1973 on a Saturn V rocket, it used as its main habitat the vehicle’s third stage, which had been outfitted as a workshop. Its apparatus included a powerful solar telescope and equipment for Earth- and materials-sciences research and for studies of the human body’s adaptation to weightlessness. Three successive astronaut crews conducted research aboard Skylab for a total of 171 days in 1973–74. Because its thermal shielding was damaged during launch, its first crew took up and installed an improvised sunshade to prevent the station from seriously overheating. Although plans called for Skylab to be reused, increased solar activity caused its orbit to degrade faster than expected. In 1979 it entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke up, with debris spreading over the southeastern Indian Ocean and a sparsely populated section of Western Australia.

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Skylab 

a US manned orbital space station and its space program, carried out in 1973 and 1974. Skylab was launched into a near-earth orbit on May 14, 1973. The altitude of the orbit was 434 km at perigee and 437 km at apogee, with an orbital inclination of 50°. Three crews of astronauts were transported to Sky-lab aboard Apollo spacecraft: astronauts C. Conrad, Jr., J. Kerwin, and P. Weitz manned the station from May 25 to June 22, 1973; astronauts A. Bean, O. Garriott, and J. Lousma were on board from July 28 to Sept. 26, 1973; and astronauts G. Carr, W. Pogue, and E. Gibson worked on board Skylab from Nov. 16, 1973, to Feb. 8, 1974. The principal task of all three Skylab missions was the study of human adaptation to the conditions of prolonged space flight and the subsequent re-adaptation to the earth’s gravity. Other tasks included observation of the sun, study of the earth’s natural resources, and conduction of engineering experiments.

The weight of Skylab in orbit was 77 tons, and after docking with the Apollo spacecraft, approximately 90 tons. The overall length was 24.6 m, and the maximum diameter was 6.6 m. Skylab consisted of a main module, an instrument bay, an airlock module, a docking adapter, and a platform with astronomical instruments.

The body of the main module was based on the third stage of a Saturn 5 launch vehicle, used in the Apollo program for manned flights to the moon. The main module had the shape of a cylinder and was divided by a partition into a laboratory bay and living quarters. The laboratory bay was connected to the airlock module and contained scientific equipment. The living quarters had compartments for sleeping and exercise, a work area for experiments, areas for cooking, eating, and leisure activities, and toilet and washing facilities. Between the main module and the airlock module was the instrument bay, containing the guidance equipment used for the launch vehicle during orbital insertion and for the orbiting space station during preparations for docking. The airlock module had a cylindrical shape and was located between the instrument bay and the docking adapter. It contained the airlock equipment and several units of the life-support systems electric power-supply system, and the communications system and was provided with a hatch for access to the outside. The docking adapter had the shape of a cylinder that ends in a truncated cone, on which the main docking assembly was mounted. It had a docking collar designed to fit the Apollo spacecraft. A backup docking assembly was mounted on the side. A remote-control console was installed inside the docking adapter; it controlled a set of astronomical instruments weighing 9.7 tons, as well as instruments for exploration of the earth’s natural resources.

REFERENCES

Glushko, V. P. “Dolgovremennye orbital’nye stantsii (k poletu ‘Skaileba’).” Voprosy raketnoi tekhniki, 1974, no. 4.
See also references under SPACE STATION.

A. A. EREMENKO