Skylab 1 was America's first long-duration orbiting laboratory. Crewed between May 1973 and February 1974, it was the 'great uncle' of Mir and the International Space Station, engineered from the shell of a redundant rocket stage (part of an earlier epic space programme). Transformed with additional modules and structures, Skylab became an unmitigated success. With humans now scheduled to return to the Moon in the near future, it's time to celebrate this venerable one-of-a-kind space station.
Skylab was ultimately the result of Cold War political hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States. When Russia launched its first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957 - aboard an R-7 rocket designed by Russian Sergei Korolev - the United States was worried. The race between these two superpowers for the domination of space began in earnest. Their next target? The Moon.
Having already sent astronauts into orbit during Project Gemini, on 20 July 1969 the Moon race was won by the USA when Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took humankind's first footsteps in the lunar dust. The next goal was to achieve a lasting presence in space: Skylab.
Rocket recycling
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Could We Find Aliens by Looking for Their Solar Panels?- Designed to reflect ultraviolet and infrared, the panels have a unique fingerprint
Researchers searching for life beyond Earth spend a lot of time thinking about what telltale signs might be detectable astronomically. Forms of unambiguous evidence for the presence of life on another world are known as biosignatures. By extension, techno signatures are indicators of activity by intelligent, civilisation-building life.
Antimatter- In our continuing series, Govert Schilling looks at antimatter, the strange counterpart to most of the matter filling our Universe
Particles and corresponding antiparticles are very much alike, except they have opposite electrical charges. For instance, the antiparticle of the electron - known as the positron - has the same tiny mass, but while electrons carry a negative electrical charge, positrons are positively charged.
Where Have All The Milky Way's Early Stars Gone?- Our Galaxy has a curious lack of pristine stars
The Big Bang produced a Universe filled almost exclusively with hydrogen and helium; all other elements - what astronomers call metals - were produced by stars, supernovae and everything that happens later. So if you can pick out a pristine star with no metals polluting it from among the billions in the Milky Way, then you are likely to have a star dating from our Galaxy's earliest days.
Inside The Sky At Night - Two years ago, exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford received some of the first data from the JWST
Two years ago, exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford received some of the first data from the JWST. In July's Sky at Night, we discovered what she's learned since then.
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Easily combine multiple frames to boost detailin your astro photos
Lunar occultation of Saturn
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A rewarding project to chart stars that change brightness
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Mary Mcintyre explains how to get impressive night-sky images using your phone
Once-a-century solar storm is overdue
If a Carrington Event struck today it would be catastrophic, says Minna Palmroth
The new era of human spaceflight
There's been a step-change in crewed space missions since the dawn of the 21st century. Ben Evans charts its course and looks ahead to future horizons
