| Abstract |
Skylab was the first manned Earth orbiting space station of the United States (the Soviet Union launched the world's first space station, Salyut 1, on April 19, 1971). The overall objectives of Skylab were to learn about space and to have people live and work in space for longer periods in a laboratory-like environment to conduct experiments (a limiting factor on time in orbit was how much supplies the crew could bring with them). The science goals of Skylab were to observe the Earth's surface (land and ocean) and Earth's atmosphere, as well as the sun and stars above, and to carry out onboard medical and engineering experiments.
In the time frame 1973 and 1974, Skylab-1 supported three crews of three astronauts each for periods of up to 84 days. Command and service modules, like the ones used for the Apollo program, carried astronauts to Skylab and docked with the station.
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