NASA launches Skylab, America's first space station
On this day · 14 May 1973
The last Saturn V ever flown carried America's first orbiting laboratory aloft—then nearly cooked it in the first minute of flight.
On May 14, 1973, the final Saturn V rocket ever launched thundered off Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, carrying Skylab, the United States’ first space station, into orbit. Built from a converted Saturn upper stage, the orbital workshop was designed to host three crews running some 270 experiments in solar physics, Earth science, and human biology.
The ascent nearly ruined everything. About 63 seconds in, aerodynamic forces ripped away the micrometeoroid shield—which also served as a sunshade—and crippled the solar arrays. Skylab reached orbit overheating and starved of power.
Engineers scrambled to save a station that should have been crewed within a day.
The first astronauts launched eleven days later, deployed a parasol sunshade, and freed a jammed solar wing during a daring spacewalk. The rescue worked. Three crews ultimately lived aboard, proving humans could work productively for weeks in space.
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