Skylab 3 Launch Poster

The Skylab 3/Saturn 1B space vehicle is launched from Pad B, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Cneter, Florida, at 7:11 a.m., Saturday, July 28, 1973. The Skylab 3 mission covered the operations of the second crew consisting of Alan L. Bean, Jack R. Lousma and Owen K. Garriott. The mission, launched on July 28, 1973, continued maintenance of the space station and extensive scientific and medical experiments, completing 858 Earth orbits and 59 days, 11 hours of solar and Earth experiments. This mission more than doubled the previous endurance record in space, just set by the astronauts of Skylab 2 just a month earlier. After an early bout with motion sickness, the crew settled down for their two-month mission, deploying a second sun shield on a space walk lasting six hours, 30 minutes. They conducted many experiments, and brought with them live spiders to conduct a student-designed experiment to see what kinds of webs the spiders would spin in weightlessness. Also on this mission the astronauts finally got to test the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, or AMU, which had initially been carried into space aboard Gemini IX but could not be tested then because of problems with the old Gemini space suit. The AMU experiments assisted engineers in designing the Manned Maneuvering Unit, which was first flown aboard the Shuttle flight STS 41B in February, 1984. Splashdown was on September 25, 1973. Our thanks go to the crew of the recovery ship USS New Orleans for recovering the command module so that we can share this piece of history with the public.