In July 1979, the area gained worldwide attention when the re-entry of the Skylab space station left a trail of debris across the countryside.
The first long-term programme dealing with the consequences of the absence of gravity was developed already in 1973 by the NASA Skylab.
In 1979, pieces of the space station Skylab crashed onto Esperance after the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean.
Between 1963 and 1975, Akbay served in various managerial capacities during NASA’s Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz projects.
During his career, McCool contributed to several space developments including Skylab and the Space Shuttle program.
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As a charter member of the Marshall Center, McCool was instrumental in the design of the propulsion systems for the Saturn launch vehicles that propelled Project Apollo to the Moon and directed project engineering for Skylab, the first space science laboratory.
Before the first rocket missions, the corona could be observed only in white light during the eclipses, while in the last fifty years the solar corona has been photographed in the EUV and X-rays by many satellites (Pioneer 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Helios, Skylab, SMM, NIXT, Yohkoh, SOHO, TRACE, Hinode).
Astronauts have expressed an increased incidence of back pain during spaceflight and herniated intervertebral discs (IVD) have been diagnosed upon return of Skylab and Shuttle spaceflight participants.
Kerwin is co-author, along with fellow astronaut Owen Garriott and writer David Hitt, of Homesteading Space, a history of the Skylab program published in 2008.
After NASA decided to move Saturn IB launches from LC-34 to LC-39, it was modified by the addition of a structure known as the Milkstool, which allowed the Saturn IB to use the same Launch Umbilical Tower as the much larger Saturn V. Three manned flights to Skylab, and the Apollo launch for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, were conducted from ML-1 using the Milkstool.
Garriott is co-author, with fellow astronaut Joseph Kerwin and writer David Hitt, of Homesteading Space, a history of the Skylab program, published in 2008.
The Skylab Expedition 1 patch was designed by Kelly Freas, a well-known artist highly regarded in the science fiction community, who was suggested to NASA by science fiction author and editor Ben Bova.
Some uses considered for the second Skylab module included putting it into a mode where it could generate artificial gravity and a plan to celebrate the 1976 United States Bicentennial with the launch of two Soviet Soyuz missions to the back-up Skylab.
Skylab 3 (SLM-2), the second manned mission to the Skylab space station
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Skylab 2 (SL-2), second mission in the Skylab space station program
After Skylab, Weitz became the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office under Chief Astronaut John Young.