posted 05-25-2023 04:25 PM               

Just 11 days earlier the Skylab Orbital Workshop Station was launched into orbit before Conrad's crew was scheduled to arrive for the first of three astronaut visits. Once the world's biggest space station at the time had reached orbit on May 14, the remaining solar panel failed to open, requiring a new flight plan for Conrad's crew in trying to repair the external panels along with a ripped-away solar sun shield causing the OWS to over-heat inside by more than 120 degrees.

Most of us, who are avid space enthusiasts and cover collectors, know the rest of the story. Those Skylab (SL-2) postal covers in the display panel below, for this particular cover topic posting, will only feature crew signed Skylab 2 (SL-2) covers for launch, docking, and splashdown of the first astronaut crew stay. The depicted covers are cachet issues by NASA itself (both the blue rubber stamp and VIP launch card), NASA Exchange on base, Orbit Covers, Cape Kennedy Medals, Centennial Covers, the Johnson Space Center Stamp Club, and the US Navy Prime Recovery Ship covers for the SL-2 crew splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

After making substantial Skylab repairs along with the deployment of the parasol sunshade, the space laboratory and workshop station was in full operation by June 4, 1973. The first Skylab crew conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources observations, medical studies, and 5 student experiments during the 392 experiment study hours, as well as 3 EVAs (spacewalks outside the OWS) totaling 6 hours and 20 minutes.