On April 29, 1985, the European Space Agency's Spacelab launched on the space shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51B. This was the second time the Spacelab went to space and the first time it flew in a fully operational configuration. Spacelab pallets had flown to space on three previous shuttle missions, but this was the first time that the entire laboratory was used to conduct research in microgravity. Spacelab provided a platform for five fields of research: astronomy, atmospheric physics, mat

On May 14, 1973, NASA launched Skylab, the first American space station. Discover more space history 👉 https://space-com.visitlink.me/bycVtB Skylab orbited Earth for six years and supported three crewed missions during which astronauts conducted hundreds of science experiments. Skylab was considered a success overall, but it got off to a pretty rocky start. It lifted off on a Saturn V rocket from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About a minute into the launch, its micrometeoroid shie