May 14, 1973 saw the US launch what first ever space station, which orbited the earth for 6 years, even though it was only visited 3 times?
Soyuz 14 by the Soviets. The mission proved to be the only one for Salyut 3 as Soyuz 15 failed to dock with the station in August and the station was de-orbited January 1975. With the American Skylab missions now complete, the flight marked the start of the monopoly of manned space activities by the Soviets until the 1981 launch of STS 1, the first space shuttle flight, save for the joint Apollo-Soyuz flight of 1975. With the Salyut 3 space station successfully launched on 24 June 1974, Soyuz 14 was sent into orbit nine days later, on 3 July. The craft
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14 Launch Complex 14 (LC-14) is a launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. LC-14 was used for various manned and unmanned Atlas launches, including the "Friendship 7" flight aboard which John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. LC-14 was the first Atlas pad in operation and hosted the initial test flights in 1957–58. It was also the only one of the original four Atlas pads to never have a booster explode on it. By 1959, it was decided to convert the pad for the Atlas D