45 Years Ago Today; Skylab launched from Cape Canaveral

[Dennis Donovan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab#Operational_history

Completion and launch


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

On August 8, 1969, the McDonnell Douglas Corporation received a contract for the conversion of two existing S-IVB stages to the Orbital Workshop configuration. One of the S-IV test stages was shipped to McDonnell Douglas for the construction of a mock-up in January 1970. The Orbital Workshop was renamed "Skylab" in February 1970 as a result of a NASA contest. The actual stage that flew was the upper stage of the AS-212 rocket (the S-IVB stage, S-IVB 212). The mission computer used aboard Skylab was the IBM System/4Pi TC-1, a relative of the AP-101 Space Shuttle computers. A Saturn V originally produced for the Apollo program—before the cancellation of Apollo 18, 19, and 20—was repurposed and redesigned to launch Skylab. The Saturn V's upper stage was removed, but with the controlling Instrument Unit remaining in its standard position.

Skylab was launched on May 14, 1973 by the modified Saturn V. The launch is sometimes referred to as Skylab 1, or SL-1. Severe damage was sustained during launch and deployment, including the loss of the station's micrometeoroid shield/sun shade and one of its main solar panels. Debris from the lost micrometeoroid shield further complicated matters by pinning the remaining solar panel to the side of the station, preventing its deployment and thus leaving the station with a huge power deficit.

Immediately following Skylab's launch, Pad A at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 was deactivated, and construction proceeded to modify it for the Space Shuttle program, originally targeting a maiden launch in March 1979. The manned missions to Skylab would occur using a Saturn IB rocket from Launch Pad 39B.

SL-1 would be the final unmanned launch from LC-39 until February 19, 2017, when SpaceX CRS-10 was launched.

And, of course, there was this:

[Rhiannon12866]

1. My uncle worked on Skylab, he was with Martin Marietta

The flight article being prepared for shipment in December 1971 from Martin Marietta's Denver facility to the McDonnell Douglas plant at St.Louis, where it would be mated to the airlock.

https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4208/ch11.htm

[Dennis Donovan]

3. What a legacy!

[Rhiannon12866]

4. For reasons unknown to me, my parents chose him as my godfather

I only recall seeing him once after that - I obviously don't remember my baptism. He lived and worked in Denver.

[Tripper11]

2. an oldie but a goodie!