Yesterday, June 22nd, marked the 45th anniversary of the end of the Skylab 2 mission, a 28 day stay on America’s first (and so far, only) space station. As I covered extensively in May, Skylab was heavily damaged during its launch, and the Skylab 2 mission had to be delayed for 10 days while a …
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Tag:NASA History
Saving Skylab – The Skylab 2 Repairs
The first manned mission to Skylab launched on May 25th 1973, carrying astronauts Pete Conrad, Joe Kerwin, and Paul Weitz on a planned 28 day stay on the United States first space station. The first thing the crew would need to do, however, was make Skylab livable. Skylab was heavily damaged during its launch on …
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45 Years Ago: The Launch Of Skylab 2
On May 25th, 1973, the first manned mission to the United States first space station, Skylab, launched from Launch Complex 39-B at Kennedy Space Center. Originally scheduled to launch 10 days earlier, on May 15th, the launch was delayed when it was discovered that Skylab had suffered major damage on its way to orbit; the …
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Saving Skylab – How To Save A Space Station
For 10 days in May of 1973, the world waited as NASA worked hard to prepare a fix to the damaged Skylab space station. Based on the information available, they knew what kind of damage had happened to the station during launch, but without being up there to see it, no one knew quite for …
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Saving Skylab – Keeping The Station Alive
When the United States first space station, Skylab, was launched on May 14th, 1973, it suffered major damage – the micro meteoroid shield intended to protect the station from space debris and the heat of the Sun was torn off, causing temperatures in the station to rise far beyond what the vehicle was designed for. …
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How The Skylab 63 Second Anomaly Crippled A Space Station
When Skylab launched on May 14th, 1973 things looked good from the ground. The Saturn V 1st stage ignited, and like the Apollo launches before it, the vehicle began its flight – Americas first space station was off to what looked like a perfect beginning to its mission. After about 50 seconds or so the …
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45 Years Ago: The Launch of SkyLab
45 years ago today, the final Saturn V to fly launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, carrying on it the first (and only) space station for the United States: Skylab (often stylized as “SkyLab”) I absolutely love Skylab. The station itself, how it came to be, and the dramatic story of its …
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The Apollo 11 “Full Mission” Trailer
July 2019 will mark 50 years since the Apollo 11 mission, certainly one of the greatest achievements of humanity. While many fans of space history may be planning their own little anniversary events and the like, YouTube user lunarmodule5 has something a little better in store: a video series covering the entire mission, from pre-launch …
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28 Years Ago, The Launch Of The Hubble Space Telescope
Today marks an amazing 28 years since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the premier tools in our study of the origins of the universe. Orbiting the Earth well above the light altering effects of the bulk of the atmosphere, Hubble was placed in a unique position to spend days, weeks, months, …
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Apollo 6 Preflight Briefing – 1968 NASA Film
We have a quick one for you here today – a 1968 film in preparation for the mission of Apollo 6 covering the details on the planned mission. As mentioned before, Apollo 6 was intended to be basically a repeat of Apollo 4, the first test of the Saturn V rocket. That plan didn’t pan …
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50 Years Ago: The Launch Of Apollo 6
Early in the morning of April 4th, 1968, on launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center, the second Saturn V rocket to fly was launched. This mission was Apollo 6 – another unmanned test of the Saturn V and the Apollo Command-Service module, much the same as the Apollo 4 mission in November of …
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The Columbia Disaster: My Memories And Experience
On the morning of February 1st, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was set to return from it’s 28th mission, STS-107. At 7:59 AM Central time the orbiter disintegrated on re-entry due to damage it had sustained on its left wing during launch on January 16th. In this article, I tell the story from my perspective. …
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The Challenger Explosion Wasn’t Actually An Explosion
Today marks 32 years since the Challenger Disaster. On January 28th, 1986, The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds into it’s 10th mission due to one of its solid rocket boosters having a failed o-ring in a joint between 2 sections of booster casing. this caused a burn thorough situation with the booster which, …
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Apollo 1 – The Year After The Fire
January 27th, 1968 marked one year since the fire at Launch Complex 34 that killed the crew of Apollo 1: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. One year without a manned American space flight. One year of major change to our space program. One year of relative uncertainty. 1968 would, as fate would have …
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15 Years Ago: The Launch Of Columbia On STS-107
15 years ago today the Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off on what was to become its last mission, STS-107. This flight carried a crew of 7 not to the International Space Station – Columbia was far too heavy for the orbital inclination the Space Station orbits at – but a simple Earth Orbit mission for …
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