science · 08 February 1974 · 50 years ago
In 1974, the third and final astronaut crew returned from the U.S. earth-orbiting Skylab Space Station, completing their mission in space that began on 16 Nov 1973. Overall, Skylab had orbited Earth 2,476 times during the 171 days of its occupation during a total of three manned Skylab missions which started with the first crew on 25 May 1973. During that time, about 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments had been conducted by the three crews, many of which concerned how astronauts adapted to prolonged time spent under conditions of microgravity. The coronal holes in the Sun were discovered. After spending time in a parking orbit, the vacant Skylab was steered to Earth, disintegrated in its atmosphere on 11 Jul 1979.
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