Message:25704 In: TODAY.WW
From: KF5JRVDate: Sat, 11 Jul 26 09:06:00 Z
Newsgroups: TODAY.WW
Subject: Today in History - Jul 11
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On July 11, 1979, parts of Skylab, America’s first space station, come crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean f
ive years after the last manned Skylab mission ended. No one was injured.
Launched in 1973, Skylab was the world’s first successful space station. The first manned Skylab mission came two years after
the Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the world’s first space station, into orbit around the earth. However, unlike the ill-fa
ted Salyut, which was plagued with problems, the American space station was a great success, safely housing three separate thre
e-man crews for extended periods of time.
Originally the spent third stage of a Saturn 5 moon rocket, the cylindrical space station was 118 feet tall, weighed 77 tons, a
nd carried the most varied assortment of experimental equipment ever assembled in a single spacecraft to that date. The crews o
f Skylab spent more than 700 hours observing the sun and brought home more than 175,000 solar pictures. They also provided impo
rtant information about the biological effects of living in space for prolonged periods of time.
Five years after the last Skylab mission, the space station’s orbit began to deteriorate–earlier than was anticipated–bec
ause of unexpectedly high sunspot activity. On July 11, 1979, Skylab made a spectacular return to earth, breaking up in the atm
osphere and showering burning debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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