The unmanned Skylab Workshop was launched May 14, 1973, at 12:30 pm CDT atop a Saturn V launch vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The workshop's initial orbit was 269 miles circular with an inclination to the equator of 50 degrees.

An hour after launch, ground controllers were still waiting for confirmation that the workshop's solar arrays had deployed, a signal they never received.

Analysis of data showed that the meteoroid shield was lost some 63 seconds after launch, and that the breakup of the shield had probably broken the tie downs that secured one of the solar array systems causing the array to be torn away from the workshop.

Despite these problems the station achieved a near-circular orbit at the desired altitude, and all other major functions occurred as planned.

In the ten days after launch, NASA worked to salvage the mission in the face of mounting trouble.

Skylab was positioned so its telescope mount solar arrays faced the Sun to provide as much electrical power as possible. But in this attitude Skylab, without the meteoroid shield that was designed to protect against solar heating as well, got too warm -- up to 126 degrees F inside.

Several NASA centers and contractors worked to design thermal shields of reflective cloth to protect the workshop's exposed areas from direct sunlight. Three shields were decided upon -- a parasol type to be deployed through an experiment airlock in the lab, a "sail" to be drawn up over a twin-pole frame, and a similar sail to be deployed from the command module. All three shields were sent with the first manned crew, which was launched May 25, 1973.

The Skylab Program
Saturn Rocket

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This page was last updated on 08/10/2011.