An overhead view of the Skylab Orbital Workshop in Earth orbit, as photographed from the Skylab 4 Command and Service Modules during the final fly-around before returning home, on February 8, 1974 #

This photograph from 1970 was taken during assembly of the bottom and upper floors of the Skylab Orbital Workshop (OWS). The OWS was divided into two major compartments. The lower level provided crew accommodations for sleeping, food preparation and consumption, hygiene, waste processing and disposal, and some experiments. The upper level consisted of a large work area and housed water storage tanks, a food freezer, scientific airlocks, mobility and stability experiment equipment, and other experimental equipment. #

The three members of the prime crew of the first manned Skylab mission dine on specially prepared Skylab space food in the wardroom of the crew quarters of the OWS trainer during training at the Johnson Space Center on March 1, 1973. They are, from left, Joseph P. Kerwin, science pilot; Paul J. Weitz, pilot; and Charles Conrad Jr., commander. #

The Skylab food heating and serving tray, shown with food, drink, and utensils. The tray contained heating elements for preparing the individual food packets. The food on Skylab was a great improvement over that on earlier spaceflights. It was no longer necessary to squeeze liquified food from plastic tubes. Skylab's kitchen in the Orbital Workshop wardroom was so equipped that each crew member could select his own menu and prepare it to his taste. Outside the tray, starting from bottom left, are grape drink, beef pot roast, chicken and rice, beef sandwiches and sugar-cookie cubes. In the tray, counterclockwise from back left, are orange drink, strawberries, asparagus, prime rib, a dinner roll, and butterscotch pudding in the center. #

Members of the prime crew of the first manned Skylab mission go over a checklist during a prelaunch training activity at Johnson Space Center on May 8, 1973, in the Apollo Command Module Mission Simulator. #

The unmanned Skylab 1/Saturn V space vehicle is launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at noon, on May 14, 1973, to place the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit. The Skylab 1 payload included four of the five major components of the space station Orbital Workshop, Apollo Telescope Mount, Multiple Docking Adapter, and Airlock Module. The fifth major component of the space station, the Command Service Module with the Skylab 2 crew aboard, was launched a couple weeks later, on May 25, 1973. #

The astronaut Jack R. Lousma participates in extravehicular activity next to Skylab on September 25, 1973, during which he and the astronaut Owen K. Garriott deployed a twin pole solar shield, which was needed after the original panel to protect the Orbital Workshop was ripped off during launch in May 1973. #

This overhead view of the Skylab space station was taken from the departing Skylab Command and Service Module during the final fly-around inspection on June 22, 1973. #

A wide view of the Skylab 4 crew members Jerry P. Carr (right), commander, and Edward G. Gibson, science pilot, posing for a snapshot. Also in the frame are parts of three Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuits, used on several such sessions during the third manning of the Skylab space station. #

The astronaut Jack R. Lousma, the Skylab 3 pilot, takes a hot shower in the crew quarters of the Orbital Workshop in Earth orbit. To shower, the curtain is pulled up from the floor and attached to the ceiling. The water comes through a push-button shower head attached to a flexible hose. Water is then drawn off by a vacuum system. #

A peek inside the personal hygiene locker of a Skylab 3 astronaut, which contains his toothbrush, battery-operated razor, toothpaste, and hand cream, seen in August of 1973. #

The astronaut Gerald P. Carr appears to hold up his fellow astronaut Edward G. Gibson with his finger. Carr is floating in the forward experiment area of Skylab 4 to demonstrate zero gravity. #

A close view of Arabella, one of the two Skylab 3 common cross spiders, and the web it had spun in zero gravity, aboard the Skylab space station, in 1973. During the 59-day Skylab 3 mission, the two spiders, Arabella and Anita, were housed in an enclosure onto which cameras were installed to observe their attempts to build a web in the weightless environment. The spider experiment was one of 25 experiments selected for Skylab by NASA from more than 3,400 proposals submitted by high-school students throughout the nation. It was submitted by 17-year-old Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts. #

This photograph of the sun, taken on December 19, 1973, during the third and final crewed Skylab mission, shows one of the most spectacular solar flares ever recorded, spanning more than 588,000 kilometers (365,000 miles) across the solar surface. #

Owen K. Garriott, the Skylab 3 science pilot, retrieves an imagery experiment from the Apollo Telescope Mount attached to the Skylab in Earth orbit in August of 1973. #

The family of Edward G. Gibson, the Skylab 4 science pilot, toasts the safe return of the crew at their home near the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, on February 8, 1974. From left: Jannet Lynn, 13; Julia Ann, 5; John Edward, 9, hidden behind his glass; and Mrs. Gibson, holding Joseph Michael, 2. On the wall behind them is a photo of Gibson in his flight gear, and the squawk box connected to Mission Control from which the family listened to the successful splashdown. #

A view of the Skylab space station photographed with Earth in the background, as seen from the Skylab 3 Command and Service Modules during station-keeping maneuvers prior to docking on July 28, 1973 #

In 1979, the homeowner Tom Swanner of Long Beach, California, set up a large sign with a bull's-eye to "Welcome Skylab," which was due to fall out of orbit soon, with an unknown landing site on Earth. The station's reentry took place in July of 1979, with several large pieces landing in Western Australia. #

A crowd views a damaged oxygen tank from Skylab, which fell to earth on July 11, 1979, as part of the "Skylab Fragments" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois, in August of 1979. #