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Skylab Orbital Workshop

The Skylab orbital-workshop family represents NASA's first space station, built around a converted Saturn V S-IVB stage with an airlock module, multiple docking adapter, and Apollo Telescope Mount. McDonnell Douglas converted the workshop under NASA Marshall management, and NASA operated it in low Earth orbit from 1973 until reentry in 1979.

Skylab Orbital Workshop
NASA/Johnson Space Center · Stored/public JPEG is byte-identical to NASA's canonical sl4-143-4706 original (3856x3870, SHA-256 aa40e5db4ceb04695723851b193f81bacbb2af7893684ec558396e2e63c9604b). NASA Images API identifies the exact asset as the Skylab 4 fly-around view of the Skylab space-station cluster, and NASA's authoritative image article describes the same overhead photograph, its Skylab 4 CSM context, and NASA credit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/overhead-view-of-skylab-from-orbit/. NASA current Images and Media Usage Guidelines permit factual or informational use of NASA content with NASA acknowledged where no third-party rights are indicated, while NASA logos and identifiers remain protected and use must not imply endorsement: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/. This is an asset-level, conservative factual/editorial reuse basis with NASA/Johnson Space Center attribution, not a blanket license for promotional use, merchandise, NASA branding, or endorsement. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
Skylab Space StationSaturn WorkshopSWSOrbital WorkshopOWS
Family Name
Skylab
Full Name
Skylab Orbital Workshop
Roles
space_station
Status
retired
Type
spacecraft

Details

Description
The Skylab orbital-workshop family represents NASA's first space station, built around a converted Saturn V S-IVB stage with an airlock module, multiple docking adapter, and Apollo Telescope Mount. McDonnell Douglas converted the workshop under NASA Marshall management, and NASA operated it in low Earth orbit from 1973 until reentry in 1979.
First Flight Year
1,973
Last Flight Year
1,979
Manufacturer
Operator
Propulsion Configurations
  • Entries
    • Nested value
    Name
    Skylab Orbital Workshop TACS attitude-control installation
    Notes
    One exact integrated Thruster Attitude Control System on the Skylab Orbital Workshop. NASA documents the cold-gas TACS as the workshop-mounted primary attitude-control system before ATM control-moment gyroscope activation and as backup or supplemental control for momentum desaturation, maneuvers, and docking transients; no individual thruster model, quantity, propellant species, or S-IVB propulsion is inferred.
Spacecraft Specs
Reusability
expendable

Links

Official Url
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/skylab/

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 17, 2026 at 03:30:07 UTC
Updated Time
August 25, 2026 at 18:26:48 UTC
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Search Name
Skylab Orbital Workshop Skylab Space Station Saturn Workshop SWS Orbital Workshop OWS