2023-11-21 10:45:32
These days mark 50 years since the launch into space of the third and last crew that lived and worked for a time on the Skylab space station. Aboard the American space station, these astronauts broke the world record for human stay in space, although their Soviet rivals took it from them a few years later. Skylab was a huge station, and could have been used for longer. Economic and technical difficulties in making more trips to it ended up making the third crew the last. Skylab met a sad end, crashing into Earth five years after being left alone.
The third Skylab crew was somewhat unusual in the fact that none of the three astronauts had been in space before. Regarding their background, Gerald P. Carr (the mission commander) and William Pogue came from the military background, while Edward G. Gibson came from the civilian background.
The three astronauts left Earth on November 16, 1973, aboard an Apollo spacecraft powered by a Saturn IB rocket. They arrived at Skylab 8 hours later.
From then on, his time was divided between scientific work, technical maintenance of the orbital complex and domestic tasks, with little free time. In fact, on Christmas Day 1973 they spent seven hours photographing Comet Kohoutek from their vantage point in space and carrying out other scientific activities. Kohoutek is a long-period comet that at that time passed close enough to Earth to be clearly visible and arouse great interest.
Comet Kohoutek, which was observed for several days, was joined by another important objective for astronomical observation: the Sun. From the station, very valuable images of various solar phenomena were captured.
Edward G. Gibson aboard Skylab. (Photo: NASA)
William R. Pogue (left) and Gerald P. Carr aboard the Skylab. (Photo: NASA)
On February 8, 1974, the Apollo spacecraft with Carr, Pogue and Gibson undocked from Skylab and landed on Earth.
For a time, there was hope that a hypothetical rescue mission to Skylab with the first American space shuttle would allow the station to be maneuvered to avoid its fall and thus be able to take advantage of it for a few more years. None of that happened. Skylab’s situation became increasingly worse until it fell to Earth on July 11, 1979. The first space flight of the first American space shuttle did not occur until April 12, 1981.
The next American flights to a space station were to the Russian MIR from 1994 to 1998, and later, with the launch of the first parts of the International Space Station into orbit, regular trips to it began. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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