A Brief History of Skylab

Article

“A Brief History of Skylab” by William C. Schneider
Published in Quest Volume: 30 #3 (2023)

Abstract

The Skylab Program was established as a precursor space station with the multiple objectives of proving the worth of a permanent space station, of exploring the physiological limits of [human] endurance in spaceflight, and conducting a series of space-oriented experiments.

The program has been successfully concluded and, in addition to the above, has left a legacy of lessons, of a technical and managerial nature, to be followed by the developers of the next space station. It is the purpose of this thesis to record some of the lessons from Skylab to document the observations of the Program Director. These experiences cover program conception, proceed through design, development, fabrication, test, and assembly, and continue through launch operations, flight operations, and finally crew recovery.

Note: This article is an excerpt from William C. Schneider’s 1976 Catholic University of America PhD thesis, “Skylab Lessons Learned as Applicable to a Large Space Station.” 

Citation

Schneider, William C. “A Brief History of Skylab.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 30, no. 3 (2023): 3-14.