May 14 , 2023 , mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of Skylab , a crucial mission in NASA ’s crewed blank space geographic expedition of space . Skylab was the first American space station , an orbiting shop , and over the six month it was occupied , it vastly expand man ’s savvy of space geographic expedition , from the effect of space on the human body to carrying out incredible scientific observance from orbit .
The pivotal mission featured in the award - winning 2019 documentary , Searching for Skylab : America ’s Forgotten Triumph , and include interviews with some of the last astronauts of the three bunch that inhabit the orbiting space post between May 1973 and February 1974 , Skylab 2 , 3 , and 4 . Among them was astronaut Ed Gibson , the last person to impart Skylab , closing its hatching forever as he and fellow spaceman Gerald Carr and William Pogue came back down to Earth .
IFLScience spoke to Dr Gibson to discuss all things Skylab from what his mean solar day - to - Clarence Day activity look like to his scientific breakthroughs . After all , he was the first person to see a solar flare from space ; that ’s worth a story . We also touched on the infamous " space mutiny " and how it mat up seeing Skylab crash down through Earth ’s atmosphere and decay over the Indian Ocean and Australia in 1979 .
A Demanding Schedule And the Space Mutiny Myth
There was n’t a quite a little of time for rubber-necking while on the space station . Gibson , now 86 , strain how much employment they had to undertake while in space , and how every individual physiological occasion of the crew was monitored to contemplate how living in microgravity might impress humans .
The crew of Skylab 4 was there for 84 days , the longest time an American crew had spend in place up to that point . It was paramount that they were under close observance . However , for almost the first one-half of the mission they play 16 - hour days , something that had to eventually be addressed with NASA . The agency realise it was put too much emphasis on the crew , prove to maximize every moment in the space lab , make out that Skylab 4 would be its last visitors .
Asked what those most three months were like Dr Gibson told IFLScience : “ Very busy ! I did n’t have time to actually enjoy quad . Ground control kept us marching forward all the prison term . ”
The demanding work load had the crew skip their ease days and they eventually had to bring this up with dry land ascendence . Ground control did apologize for press them too hard , but this story has been immortalized as the mythical " Space Mutiny " . The report is that on either December 27 or 28 , 1973 , the three astronauts " mutinied " , turn their tuner off , and pick out a day off .
This did n’t in reality happen , as swan by Gibson and Dr Story Musgrave , the capsule communicator for this mission , based in missionary work control in Houston , whoIFLScience spoke to in 2018 . On that daytime , they actually convey as usual with Houston and even deport observations ofComet Kohoutek , one of the astronomical observations of the mission . The other major mission was a solar observation , Dr Gibson ’s orbit of expertness .
“ Solar observations , that was my specialty because I had learned a little bit about solar physics , " Dr Gibson recount IFLScience in theinterview . " I write a textbook on it calledThe Quiet Sun . And so I was really happy to be up there and do that .
“ Solar physics is interesting . Most of the time the Sun is just a big rotund yellow clump , just sitting there staring at you but every now and then , when you get some charismatic field of honor reconfigurations , vigour is cut liberal . And if it was a big configuration they call it a flair . A band of radiation is throw off . ”
The solar studies onboard Skylab paved the agency for the establishment of X - ray astronomy .
Dr Gibson also recalled his experience behave out extravehicular activities for instance spacewalk . Being in a spacesuit outside the station , with the whole Earth below him was , for him , “ the ultimate freedom . ”
The Day Skylab Crashed To Earth And The US Littering Fine
After Skylab 4 , NASA ’s attention shift toward the Shuttle program , and the space station slowly succumbed to orbital decay . Despite the atmosphere being very rarefied century of kilometre from the surface , it is still enough to slow down down objective in field . Over time , they will slow down enough that they will fare back down .
In 1978 , NASA discovered Skylab ’s arena was decaying chop-chop and various plan were machinate to bring it down safely , and not in anuncontrolled tumble . finally , they send away the station ’s booster rocket , sending it into a spin they hoped would contribute it down over the Indian Ocean .
On July 11 , 1979 , it did indeed come down , breaking asunder and burn up in the air , showering the Indian Ocean with rubble that made it all the way to Western Australia . Dr Gibson was at reason control when the distance station crashed .
" The only thing I was very well-chosen about , when I knew it was heading for Australia , is that it did n’t hit anybody or have any literal serious damage , so it landed in a sensible position from that standpoint , ” Dr Gibson allege . “ When it was all over we emit a sigh of easing and said , well , we ’re glad we had the opportunity . ”
The small town of Esperance in Australia was one of the places where the rubble landed . fortuitously no one was hurt , but it jokingly make out anAUS$400 fine to NASA for littering , all the same . While the fine was written off three months later , California DJ Scott Barley asked his listeners to pitch in for the all right andpaid this debtoff in 2009 .
50 years of Skylab
“ Skylab ’s impact on how we know today can not be downplay . The understanding of our Earth owes a lot to the pioneer observation made by the Skylab crews 50 years ago , " documentary - shaper Dwight Steven - Boniecki , director ofSearching for Skylab , told IFLScience .
" Skylab ’s legacy has finally crawl out from Apollo ’s fantasm . What was attain in 1973 and 1974 set the benchmark for ISS mission planning today . Skylab ought never to be forgotten . It was an incredible victory of ingenuity , perseverance , and courageousness . Its legacy deserves to share the stage with Mercury , Gemini , and Apollo . pioneer skill in space which resile to this day . ”
An early version of this article was published in 2021 .
