From The Shelf

HOMESTEADING SPACE: THE SKYLAB STORY - Written by David Hitt this a detailed history of Skylab, the first American space station. For those of you who aren't familiar with Skylab the story is a very interesting, and oftentimes forgotten one. On the heels of the successful Apollo missions in the late 60's and early 70's, NASA's next step was to "homestead" space. Skylab's chief purpose was to see how astronauts perform and live in space over long periods of time. Over a brief period of time between 1973 and 1974 there were three manned missions to the space station (which was simply a modified Saturn V rocket left over from the Apollo missions.) During its brief time Skylab was extremely successful. But like all things NASA, it eventually comes down to money. Facing budget cuts, and an upcoming new "Shuttle" program, NASA decided to scrap the program after its third mission. The most interesting part of Skylab is its demise. NASA basically decided to let it fall to Earth and "burn up" in the atmosphere. The big joke around the world (and this is the only thing I actually remember from my childhood) was "where would Skylab land?" People all over the world were a little frantic about the possibility of a big chunk of machinery falling on their house. Skylab eventually broke up over the Indian Ocean and remote western Australia, so little damage was done, but for a time it was a little dicey. The book here gives a detailed history of the program, from start to finish. The origin and demise of Skylab are the most interesting parts of the story, and the middle portion of the book is rather dry. Still though I found this to be an interesting read.