This week in 1973, the first Skylab crew returned to Earth following a successful 28-day mission. During its launch in May 1973, Skylab — America’s first space station — suffered damage to its sunshield, causing the orbiting workshop to overheat. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center engineers and scientists worked to develop an emergency repair procedure that launched just 11 days after the incident. Here, a crew member practices the repair in Marshall’s Neutral Buoyancy Simulator. Over the course of Skylab’s human occupation from May 25, 1973, to February 8, 1974, three crews visited the space station, carried out 270 scientific and technical investigations and logged a combined 171 days on orbit. Today, the Payload Operations Integration Center at Marshall serves as “science central” for the International Space Station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory’s scientific experiments. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)