A close-run thing
Space is a dangerous environment and getting there is equally hazardous. Then there is human ingenuity to get around any problem… May 14, 1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. We have been here before. Cape Canaveral is about to see the launch of another Saturn V rocket, the massive ‘candle’ that took astronauts to the moon and back. But that program ended in December due to budget cuts. What else can NASA do with its spare Saturn Vs and the 400,000 strong workforce that made the Apollo missions possible? Build and launch the first US space station, build and launch Skylab. Skylab configuration as planned Source: Wikimedia Commons In the 1950s, figures such as Arthur C. Clarke and Wernher Von Braun (by now technical director of the US Army’s ballistic…