Launched unpiloted on May 14, 1973, Skylab was a complex orbiting scientific laboratory that set the stage for the International Space Station of today and long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars in the future. Three crews of astronauts performed microgravity experiments for up to three months in a shirtsleeve environment.
The International Space Station has been in operation with research ongoing since Nov. 2, 2000. America’s first space station was Skylab. Launched 48 years ago, it was a complex orbiting scientific laboratory that helped pave the way for permanent operations in low-Earth orbit. It was a program of unparalleled scientific scope that continues to yield highly valuable information about the universe and life within it.
On Oct. 11, 1968, three American astronauts launched to Earth orbit aboard Apollo 7. It was the first piloted mission of the spacecraft designed to meet President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to land on the lunar surface.
The year 1967 began with the tragic loss of the Apollo 1 crew, but ended with the successful launch of the first Saturn V rocket. NASA hoped to make it two successes in a row with the first unmanned flight of the lunar module, or LM, the spacecraft designed to land Americans on the Moon before the end of the decade.