Perhaps the ultimate kludge was the first US space station, Skylab.

The Airlock Module's manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, even recycled the hatch design from its Gemini spacecraft and kludged what was originally designed for the conical Gemini Command Module onto the cylindrical Skylab Airlock Module.

The Skylab project, managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Marshall Space Flight Center, was seen by the Manned Spacecraft Center ( later Johnson Space Center ) as an invasion of its historical role as the NASA center for manned spaceflight.

Freas was commissioned to paint the Skylab I insignia design and posters promoting the space program ( used by NASA and now hanging in the Smithsonian Institution ); pinup girls on bombers while in the United States Army Air Forces ; comic book covers ; the covers of the GURPS worldbooks Lensman and Planet Krishna ; and many others, such as more than 500 saints ' portraits for the Franciscans executed simultaneously with his portraits of Alfred E. Neuman (" What?

The first flight of Columbia ( STS-1 ) was commanded by John Young, a Gemini and Apollo veteran who was the ninth person to walk on the Moon in 1972, and piloted by Robert Crippen, a rookie astronaut originally selected to fly on the military's Manned Orbital Laboratory ( MOL ) spacecraft, but transferred to NASA after its cancellation, and served as a support crew member for the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions.

However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia.

Rescuing astronauts from Skylab was possible in the most likely emergency circumstances.

The Orbital Workshop was renamed " Skylab " in February 1970 as a result of a NASA contest.

The mission computer used aboard Skylab was the IBM System / 4Pi TC-1, a relative of the AP-101 Space Shuttle computers.

Skylab was launched 14 May 1973 by a Saturn V ( the last launch of such a rocket ) with the upper stage removed, but with the avionics remaining in the same position ( different from the Saturn INT-21 rocket, which could launch payloads not based on the S-IVB ) into a 235-nautical-mile ( 435-km ) orbit.

Skylab was abandoned after the end of the SL-4 mission in February 1974, but to welcome visitors the crew left a bag filled with supplies and left the hatch unlocked.

By September 1978, the agency believed Skylab was safe for crews, with all major systems intact and operational.

The program formally commenced in 1972, although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, and was the sole focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s.

Skylab was also equipped with two docking ports, like second-generation stations, but the extra port was never utilized.

In the end it turned out that the Soviet N1 " Moon Shot " rocket never flew successfully, so OKB-1's decisions to abandon the ill fated Soviet maned lunar program, and to derive a DOS space station from existing Soyuz subsystems and an Almaz-OPS hull proved to be right: The actual time to the launch of the first DOS-based Salyut 1 space station from the get-go was an impressive 16 months – the world's first space station was launched by the Soviet Union, two years before Skylab or the first Almaz-OPS station flew.

The orbital workstation Skylab, weighed, was long by in diameter, with a habitable volume of.

Skylab 1, the mission to actually launch the space station, was launched on 14 May 1973, but was damaged during the flight, losing one of its solar panels and a meteoroid thermal shield.

The splashdown method of landing was utilized for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo ( including Skylab, which used Apollo capsules ).

Such equipment was accommodated in two forms: on pallets or other arrangements in the Shuttle's cargo bay ( most often in addition to hardware for the primary mission ), or within a reusable laboratory called Skylab.

Apollo / Saturn vehicles were also used for an Apollo Applications program which consisted of three Skylab space station missions in 1973 – 74.

* Apollo Telescope Mount, solar observatory attached to Skylab, the first US space station

Since the corona has been photographated at high resolution in the X-rays by the satellite Skylab in 1973, and then later by Yohkoh and the other following space instruments, it has been seen that the structure of the corona is very various and complex: different zones have been immediately classified on the coronal disc

Astronauts also used EVA in 1973 to repair launch damage to Skylab, the United States ' first space station.

They rescued the functionality of the launch-damaged Skylab space station by freeing a stuck solar panel, deploying a solar heating shield, and freeing a stuck circuit breaker relay.

* 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.

* 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

* 1973 – Skylab, the United States ' first space station, is launched.

Industrial design firm Raymond Loewy / William Snaith recommended emphasizing habitability and comfort for the astronauts by, for example, providing a wardroom for meals and relaxation, and a window to view the Earth and space, although astronauts who participated in Skylab planning were dubious about the designers ' focus on areas such as color schemes.

Launch of the modified Saturn V rocket carrying the Skylab space station

Each Skylab mission set a record for the amount of time astronauts spent in space.

The studies cited several benefits from reusing Skylab, which one called a resource worth " hundreds of millions of dollars " with " unique habitability provisions for long duration space flight.

Proponents of Skylab's reuse also said repairing and upgrading Skylab would provide information on the results of long-duration exposure to space for future stations.

* July 11 – NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.

Other American manned spacecraft include the Gemini Spacecraft, Apollo Spacecraft, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle with undetached European Spacelab and private US Spacehab space stations-modules.

two space stations are in orbit ; the International Space Station, and China's Tiangong 1, ( which successfully launched on September 29, 2011, after failing in its prior August launch attempt ) Previous stations include the Almaz and Salyut series, Skylab and most recently Mir.

Skylab included an Apollo Telescope Mount ( a multi-spectral solar observatory ), Multiple Docking Adapter with two docking ports, Airlock Module with EVA hatches, and the Orbital Workshop, the main habitable volume of the station.

If the crew had failed to repair Skylab in time, the plastic insulation inside the station would have melted, releasing poisonous gas and making Skylab completely uninhabitable.

First generation stations such as Salyut 1 and Skylab had monolithic designs, consisting of one module with no resupply capability, whilst the second generation stations Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 comprised a monolithic station with two ports to allow consumables to be replenished by cargo spacecraft such as Progress.

* Skylab – 14 May 1973 – First American space station

While Skylab already featured a second docking port, it were these two Salyut stations that would become the first that actually utilized two docking ports: This made it possible for two Soyuz spacecraft to dock at the same time for crew exchange of the station and for Progress spacecraft to resupply the station, allowing for the first time a continuos (" permanent ") occupation of space stations.

If the CSM failed, the spacecraft and Saturn IB for the next Skylab mission would have been launched with two astronauts to retrieve the crew ; given Skylab's ample supplies, its residents would have been able to wait up to several weeks for the rescue mission.

On May 14, 1973, the 77-ton ( 70, 000-kg ) Skylab was launched into a 235-nautical-mile ( 435-km ) orbit by a Saturn V vehicle ( the last to be flown ) with Skylab replacing the upper stage.

This loss was partially corrected by the first crew, launched May 25 ; they stayed in orbit with Skylab for 28 days.

By the time STS-2 was launched, Skylab had long since de-orbited.

After conclusion of the Apollo program, four CSM's were launched on Saturn IBs for three Skylab Earth orbital missions and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

When Skylab 3's CSM had problems with its Reaction Control System, Brand was put on standby to pilot a rescue mission, but was later stood down when it was decided that the problem did not require the rescue mission to be launched.

He served as pilot on the crew of Skylab 2 ( SL-2 ), which launched on May 25 and splashed down on June 22, 1973.

Carr was commander of Skylab 4 ( third and final manned visit to the Skylab Orbital Workshop ) launched November 16, 1973, and concluded February 8, 1974.

Dr. Gibson was the science-pilot of Skylab 4 ( third and final manned visit to the Skylab space station ), launched November 16, 1973, and concluded February 8, 1974.

Pogue was pilot of Skylab 4 ( third and final manned visit to the Skylab orbital workshop ), launched November 16, 1973, and concluded February 8, 1974.

After Skylab 3 was launched, the crew's CSM developed a problem with two of its Reaction Control System thruster quads.

The Skylab mission, launched in May 1973, served as a laboratory to perform various space manufacturing experiments.

In the 1970s, the Skylab Space Station is launched, but apparently as a wet workshop design that is based on the Saturn IB S-IVB upper stage called Skylab A.

The Saturn V that might have launched Skylab in our timeline instead launches Skylab B, a lunar orbit space station unofficially named " Moonlab ", also a wet workshop based on the S-IVB.