Remembering Skylab’s launch, 50 years on. The eventual success of America’s first space station, Skylab, was masked by a troubled launch that almost halted the mission in its tracks.

Damaged at launch, the 1970s Skylab required dramatic on-orbit repairs before it was usable. See how it worked in this SPACE.com infographic.

Fortunately, Bowen's launch was a lot less dramatic than when Skylab left Earth. Unlike the International Space Station, which took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble, Skylab was ...

During the May 14 launch, Skylab’s micrometeorite shield, which also functioned as a sun shade, was shorn off, leaving the newly orbital space station to roast in the direct sunlight.

During Skylab's launch, aerodynamic forces stripped the shield meant to protect most of the space station from micrometeoroids and sunlight completely free of the station.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of America's first space station, Skylab. Skylab wasn't the first space station ever (that honor goes to the Soviet's Salyut 1), but like many American ...

On 28 July 1973, the Skylab 3 crew of Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, bound for the Skylab Orbital Workshop in Earth ...

While Skylab's Saturn V launch vehicle sat at LC-39A, the neighboring pad, LC-39B, was mounted with a smaller Saturn IB rocket carrying the lab's awaiting crew.

When exactly did Skylab launch and what went wrong almost immediately? The “Skylab space station,” as NASA calls it, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center May 14, 1973.

It is not, however, bigger or more powerful than the mighty Saturn V that was used to launch the Apollo astronauts to the moon in the '60s and '70s and then to launch the Skylab space station in 1973.

The film documents the Skylab mission, focusing on the challenges faced during the first crewed mission to the space station. After an unsuccessful initial launch and significant technical ...