Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, ...

It's Skylab!

(Photo of Skylab taken during final mission, SL-4, Credit: NASA/JSC)

On this day in 1979, America's first space station came back to earth, albeit in fiery pieces. Launched on May 14th, 1973, Skylab was designed to serve as a science and engineering laboratory. The station sustained severe damage during launch and initial ascent, resulting in the loss of the station's micrometeoroid shield and a main solar panel. Fortunately, most of the damage was repaired by the first crew, who launched 11 days later and would stay for 28 days.

Two additional missions would visit the station, staying for 59 and 84 days, respectively. Over the course of its operational life, astronauts stayed a total of just over 171 days in the station. The last Skylab crew returned to earth in February 1974.

After the last mission, Skylab was put into a parking orbit, where it was to remain until 1979, when a planned Space Shuttle mission would dock and lift the station into a higher orbit. Unfortunately, due to delays in the Shuttle program, and higher than expected atmospheric drag on the station due to the lower orbit, the station's orbit deteriorated. Although low on fuel, NASA engineers were able to adjust the reentry path to allow the station to reenter somewhere over the Indian Ocean and the sparsely populated sections of Western Australia.

Read more here, here, and here.

A piece of history falls from space, 29 years ago.