Skylab Skylab Skylab was a United States space station launched and operated by NASA, and occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974 – the only space station the U.S. has operated exclusively. In 1979 it fell back to Earth amid huge worldwide media attention. Skylab included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems necessary for crew survival and scientific experiments. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of . Lifting Skylab into low earth orbit was the final mission and launch of a Saturn V rocket (famous for carrying the
Transit Research and Attitude Control or destroyed by the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test on July 9, 1962 and subsequent radiation belt.) It is expected to orbit for 800 years at an altitude of about . The first poem to be launched into orbit about the Earth was inscribed on the instrument panel of TRAAC. Entitled "Space Prober" and written by Prof. Thomas G. Bergin of Yale University, it reads in part: Transit Research and Attitude Control The Transit Research and Attitude Control (TRAAC) satellite was launched by the U. S. Navy from Cape Canaveral along with Transit 4B on November 15, 1961. The 109