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How Some Creative Hacking Kept Skylab From Becoming Space Junk (hackaday.com)
szczys writes: Skylab was close to becoming space junk. You may remember it crashing back to earth as space junk but that was after it was used for several research missions. What you probably don't know is that the original concept was to build it from a spent upper rocket stage that is normally just junked after launch. The module that was sent up in place of a 3rd rocket stage was damaged during launch, making it unusable until some very creative repairs paved the way for manned missions. The damage included problems with thermal shielding that turned it into an oven — nearly cooking all materials and supplies inside — and damage to solar panels which put a big hit on the station's power budget. Creative solutions and astronaut tenacity when docking and performing EVAs are all that saved Skylab from being scrapped without ever being used.
No it didn't. Nobody was hurt by Skylab debris. It landed in the middle of nowhere, specifically the Great Australian Desert. Yes the esperence council fined NASA for littering but it was done as a publicity stunt and it was NEVER paid by NASA. It was paid by funds raised by a radio show host in 2009.
MIR was leaking oxygen and had several fires. Most of MIR was completely uninhabitable for most of its life.
Mir was occupied by humans for 12.5 years out of it's 15 year life.
It was designed for a 5 year lifespan, which was extended by 10 years. While in orbit, Mir suffered some mishaps, and it was an old and dilapidated beast in the end, but as successes go, it was one hell of a good one.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Mir was launched 13 years after Skylab. Big surprise it was more advanced.
Why let facts get in the way of America bashing?
The Soviet Union launched four space stations, starting in 1971, before Skylab went up in 1973 (not including prototypes and tests). Of course Skylab spent more time in orbit than the first five Salyut stations, Komos 557, and DOS-2 stations combined. And it wasn't until Salyut 7 (launched in 1982) before they kept a station in orbit for a longer period. Stupid piece of junk Skylab
Skylab had a puny 360 sq meters of pressurized volume. Until Mir, the largest pressurized volume in a Soviet space station was 100 sq. meters. But Mir dwarfed Skylab with it's 350 sq. meters of pressurized volume. Oh, wait. Crappy American space station.
I read about the reason, on the net, why America gave up on Skylab-B. Apparently they couldn't get the time machine working to get Pentium processors for the computers before Mir was launched. True story.