United States Stations

The U.S. Skylab program was much more extensive and complex than the Soviet Salyut program. Skylab, launched by the first two stages of a Saturn 5 rocket, weighed 88,900 kg (196,000 lb) compared with the 18,600-kg (41,000-lb) Salyut. In contrast to the estimated 99-cu m (3500-cu ft) interior space of Salyut, Skylab had 357 cu m (12,600 cu ft), about three and one-half times greater. Skylab served as a laboratory in earth orbit. It was used to make solar-astronomical studies, to make long-duration medical studies of the three-person crew, to make extensive multispectral observations of the earth, and to conduct a variety of scientific and technological experiments, such as metallic-crystal growth in the weightless state.
Skylab was damaged during launch on May 25, 1973, but the crew, veteran astronaut Conrad, Commander Joseph P. Kerwin, and Commander Paul J. Weitz, all of the navy, carried out EVA repairs, erected a heat-shielding canopy over the exterior of the spacecraft, and freed a jammed solar panel. Their flight lasted 28 days. A second crew spent 59 days in orbit and the third and final crew, 84 days. The Skylab project was considered completely successful. More than 740 hours were spent in observing the sun by telescopes, and 175,000 solar pictures were returned to earth, as were about 64 km (about 40 mi) of electronic data tape and 46,000 photographs of the earth's surface. On July 11, 1979, during orbit number 34,981, Skylab plunged to earth, raining fiery debris over sparsely populated western Australia and over the Indian Ocean.

The U.S. government, in cooperation with Russia, Canada, Japan, and the 13-member European Space Agency, is planning for a permanent space station that is to be assembled in space. The space station is projected to be complete in 2002.

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