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March 1, 1963: NASA Manned Spacecraft Center* proposal to establish manned orbital space station which stressed that such a station and associated equipment could be established using rockets, equipment, and materials under development now for Project Apollo. Plan called for (1) orbiting space station with capacity for 18 crewmen; (2) sending six men in adapted Apllo-type spacecraft to board the orbiting station; and (3) sending two more such crews within a month of each other to staff the station, docking the shuttle spacecraft at the station’s three arms. Report said space station would be a national laboratory for study of space.- Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1963, p. 77-8 ;

* Now known as the Johnson Space Flight Center, Houston Texas. 

March 18, 1963: Four-man space laboratory described in unsolicited proposal to NASA by Douglas Aircraft Co.’s Missile and Space Systems Div. Space laboratory, which Douglas said could be operational in two years, could be fabricated mostly with existing hardware and proven equipment, would use only one new structure: the command-control module. - Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1963, p. 98 ;

September 17, 1963: NASA signed contract with North American Aviation for studies of Apollo spacecraft modifications to permit its being used as a space science laboratory for missions up to one year. - Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1963, p. 344 ;
 

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April 22, 1964: Michael I. Yarymovych, Director of NASA Manned Earth Orbital Mission Studies, said before Canaveral Council of Technical Studies, Cape Kennedy, that NASA was coordinating fully with DOD in exploring four different types of orbital systems: Extended Apollo, Apollo Orbital Research Laboratory (AORL), Medium Orbital Research Laboratory (MORL), and Large Orbital Research Laboratory (LORL). The first three concepts were designed to be orbited by Saturn IB; LORL, by Saturn V. Yarymovych said that it was “becoming increasingly clear that the Extended Apollo is an essential element of an expanding Earth orbital program.… 
     “In the initial stages, it would be used as a laboratory and later, it could be converted to a logistics system.” AORL, MORL, and LORL were in oompetition with each other, he said, and a decision would have to be made among them. USAF’s Gemini B/Manned Orbiting Laboratory was being studied as possible integral element of Orbital Research Laboratory program. - Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1964, p. 145.

November 1, 1964 : In a sketch prepared in November 1964, Dr. von Braun envisioned developing a Saturn V S-II Stage into a space station.  (Credit: MSFC.)
 

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Rough design for the [Skylab] station was formalized on 19 August 1966 in a meeting at Marshall Space Flight Center’s headquarters.  Debate over the design of the station had been going on for some time. “That was the culmination of a series of meetings that we had,” said George Mueller, NASA associate administrator for Manned Space Flight. “But we were not closing in.” During the meeting, Mueller did a quick sketch of what the space station was going to look like.  The crude felt pen drawing on a flip chart showed the large cylindrical workshop with an Apollo spacecraft connected to it via a smaller docking cylinder.  Connected to the docking cylinder by a tether was an Apollo Telescope Mount solar observatory.  This sketch became law: NASA had a design for its space station. - David Hitt, Owen K. Garriott and Joe P. Kerwin, Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story, 2008, Chapter 1.

Everything changed on 27 January 1967 with the Apollo 1 pad fire.  “It obviously had a real effect.  We were [then] scrambling to get AAP pulled together,” said George Mueller, NASA associate administrator for Manned Space Flight. “That abruptly disappeared from the agenda.”  The delay allowed time to further think thought the debate involving the ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ workshops.  One of the argument for the ‘wet’ workshop program had been its perceived benefits to be concurrent with the early Apollo mission.  After the fire, however, with the efforts to get Apollo back on track, AAP became a lower priority in the agency. - David Hitt, Owen K. Garriott and Joe P. Kerwin, Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story, 2008, Chapter 1.

 

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January 19, 1971: Three-man experimental space station would be manned by three different crews for total five months during eight-month mission in circular orbit of 435 km with 50° inclination. Astronauts would investigate solar astronomy, space medicine, space physics, bioscience, and material processing in addition to operating EREP sensors, including six high-precision, 70-mm cameras, infrared spectrometer, multispectral scanner, microwave radiometer/ scatterometer and altimeter, and passive radiometer. - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 10-1.

January 21, 1971: ATM (Apollo Telescope Mount) acceptance checkout at Marshall Space Fflight Center was nearing completion and it would be ready for prototype acceptance testing in early March. ATM would fly on Skylab cluster in 1972.  - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 11.

January 29, 1971: President Nixon sent $3.271 billion NASA FY 1972 budget request to Congress, which includes $535.4 million for Skylab. - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 20.

January 29, 1971: NASA released 28 January briefing on FY 1972 budget request, in which Dr. George M. Low, NASA Acting Administrator, reports that Skylab missions would be delayed about four months, to follow as soon as practical after last Apollo flight. - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 22.

March 10, 1971: NASA plans to develop first space rescue capability during 1972 Skylab program were described by Dr. Wernher von Braun, Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning: : Studies indicated NASA could have rescue spacecraft standing by on launch pad 20 days before scheduled Skylab launch in spring 1973. Rescue technique would be facilitated by equipping Apollo spacecraft with two extra seats beneath three regular crew seats. In space emergency, modified spacecraft would be launched with two-man crew rather than three. It would rendezvous with distressed Skylab vehicle to recover three-man Skylab team. Rescue vehicle would have improved hydraulic telescoping landing legs to absorb impact on land if water landing was not practical.  - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 68-9.

March 10, 1971: Dale D. Myers, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, raports that in Skylab program, “three separate three-man Skylab flight crews will be selected during the coming year. Scientist astronauts will be included… They plan to perform about 50 experiments in various disciplines. Twenty of these are in the life sciences, to determine how human beings adjust and perform under the conditions of prolonged space flight, up to 2 months’ duration. They will also operate the Skylab Earth Resources Experiment Package in the second space flight phase of NASA’s Earth resources program. These observations will be in conjunction with [and] complementary to those [of] the automated earth resources test technology ERTS, to be launched in 1972.” - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 87.

May 14 1971: Three men would spend up to 56 days in Manned Spacflight Center's altitude chamber in early 1972 to obtain medical data and evaluate medical experiment equipment for Skylab program, NASA announced. Test would closely simulate Skylab conditions so that differences observed during actual flight might be attributed to causes such as weightlessness which could not be simulated in chamber tests. Test would evaluate 16 medical experiments and selected items of experiment equipment and aid in training ground-based medical operations team for their participation during actual space flight. Chamber was 6 meters in diameter and was being modified to resemble Skylab Workshop crew quarters. Atmosphere would be 70% oxygen and 30% nitrogen at 34.5 kilonewtons per sq. m. (5 psi) pressure with 45% to 60% humidity. - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 132.

May 17, 1971: NASA’s 13 scientist-astronauts were “fuming,” Thomas O’Toole said in Washington Post. They had been selected to be members of Apollo crews landing on Moon, primarily as geologists, and members of Skylab crews, as physicians, physicists, and chemists. But among names of nine prime Skylab crew members and six backups recently circulated at Manned Spaceflight Center, three prime and two backup members were scientists and “this enraged the scientists who were hoping for two-thirds representation on Skylab.”  Scientist-astronauts had asked for more freedom in developing their scientific careers. O’Toole said NASA officials had been said to be sympathetic, “but the gripe about getting their own experiments aboard Skylab fell on deaf ears.” - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 133.

June 3, 1971: Ground test version of Skylab workshop arried at Marshall Space Flight Center aboard NASA barge Orion from Manned Spaceflight Center. Called “dynamic test article,” workshop would be modified for extensive structural testing in MSFC dynamic test tower during two-month program to start about November 1. - Astronautics And Aeronautics, 1971, p. 132.
 
 

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(C) Claude Lafleur, 2013