Beyond the Stars -NASA's 50 Years of Manned Space Flight - Part 9 Skylab

This 5,000 word monograph is illustrated by many unpublished or rarely seen photos of the Skylab Project.
Skylab weighed about 100 tons, and its launch marked the last launch of the Saturn V, a rocket that had never failed. It had a volume of 283.17 cubic meters and was separated into two "floors;" the upper floor contained storage lockers and a large empty space for conducting experiments, and two airlocks, one pointed "down" toward the Earth and the other "up" toward the Sun. The "lower" floor was divided into rooms including a dining room with a table, three bedrooms, a work area, a bathroom, and a shower. The floors consisted of an open gridwork that fit cleats on the bottom of the astronauts' shoes... Launch of the unoccupied Skylab, designated Skylab 1 (the occupied missions were officially designated Skylabs 2, 3 and 4, but are generally referred to as Skylabs I, II and III, took place on May 14, 1973, and problems set in early. Shortly after achieving orbit, telemetry from the unmanned Skylab indicated that one of the two wings of solar panels was missing and the other had not deployed. In addition, the gyros were drifting and the thermal shield was damaged. One minute and three seconds into launch, aerodynamic forces had torn the meteorite shield/sunshade loose and destroyed one of the solar arrays and seriously damaging the other. Skylab was in serious trouble.