Welcome To The Timed Skylab Quiz

NASA was very aware that after the spectacular moon landings of Apollo, the next steps in human space exploration would need to be much bigger. Instead of flying 3 days one way to visit a celestial body astronauts would need to prepare for a journey of years one way to visit the closest planet. No one knew then if humans could even survive this long in space. A scientific laboratory in orbit was to find out that and investigate many other questions. SKYLAB, NASA’s first space station was born. “Searching for Skylab” allows anyone who is not an expert on the subject to gain an understanding of what Skylab was and why it was so important for anything that came after in space exploration.

A crucial role of Skylab was to make observations of the Sun. A solar observatory, consisting of multiple cameras and telescopes were carried aboard to facilitate the research. Eventually, Skylab acquired more information about the Sun than humanity collected throughout its entire history up until that point.

Saturn V was the rocket moved from the Apollo programme to Skylab. It was modified to carry the largest Space Station ever into orbit. The movie “Searching for Skylab” explains how the rocket was modified and why it was able to carry such a large laboratory into space.

The crew of SL-4 (SLM-3), with Jerry Carr (CDR), Ed Gibson (SC PLT), and Bill Pogue (PLT) stayed in space for 84 days and held the record for the longest stay in space for 22 years.

The protective Micro-meteoroid Shield was ripped off the rocket approximately 64 seconds after launch. Thick cloud cover prevented tracking cameras on the ground from observing this take place. Additionally, the SII skirt failed to properly separate placing the rocket within seconds of exploding. The two solar panels on the side of the spacecraft were also affected – one had been completely ripped off, while the other was blocked from deploying by debris from the Micro-meteoroid Shield.