EDITORIAL INFORMATION

The program that became Skylab was conceived in 1963 as an Apollo follow-up after the lunar landing. An early start in planning was required if manned spaceflight was to continue. The circumstances in which this planning was conducted in 1963-1967 were not auspicious. A minority opinion was against the program and NASA suffered budgetary problems. Therefore the initially grandiose plans became a bare-bones three-mission program instead.

Part I of the present volume details the background against which post-Apollo planning was conducted - congressional doubt, public opposition and internal uncertainty from 1963 to mid-1969. Skylab emerged as a program in its own right after the safe return of Apollo-11. In Part II the authors examine how the Apollo components were modified for earth-orbital operations. Program management as a crucial part of the program is therefore discussed here. Part III chronicles the missions and examines the program's results.

(Extracted from the Preface, by the authors)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Preface.

PART I: FROM CONCEPT THROUGH DECISION, 1962-1969.

1. What to Do for an Encore: Post-Apollo Plans.
2. From Spent Stage to Orbital Cluster, 1965-1966.
3. Apollo Applications: "Wednesday's Child".
4. A Science Program for Manned Spaceflight.
5. Years of Uncertainty, 1967-1969.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT AND PREPARATIONS TO FLY, 1969-1973.

6. Managing the Design Phase.
7. Living And Working In Space.
8. The Medical Experiments.
9. Studying the Sun.
10. Late Additions to the Experiments.
11. Putting the Pieces Together.
12. Preparations for Flight.
13. Launching Skylab.

PART III: THE MISSION AND RESULTS, 1973-1979.

14. Saving Skylab.
15. The First Mission.
16. The Second Mission.
17. The Last Mission.
18. Results.
19. What Goes Up...

-Appendixes.

A. Summary of the Missions.
B. Major Contractors.
C. International Aeronautical Federation World Records Set by Skylab.
D. Experiments.
E. Astronauts' Biographies.
F. Comet Kohoutek.
G. Joint Observing Program 2, Active Regions.

-Source Notes.

-Index.

-The Authors.

-NASA History Publications.

OUR REVIEW

Once again the NASA History Series allows us access to the history of one of their most meaningful projects. The authors have covered in this volume the history of the project from its beginnings till the end of the manned missions, even though they are aware that they haven't equally completed the analysis of the Skylab project results, due to the fact that their contracts expired before such results were made available to them. Nevertheless, they managed to include a chapter on the Skylab's demise as well as an initial analysis of the results of the experiments that had been done in the fields of medicine, solar and Earth observations, etc., a last-minute chapter which they managed to include as at the time the manuscript was being reviewed and prepared for publication.

Charles Benson, an active member of the US Army, is likewise a co-author of Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations. William David Compton, an expert in Science and Technology having a wide academic background, collaborates with NASA in the making of other titles within the NASA History Series. In this volume both authors make a great job of rendering the history of Skylab available for us readers. The book includes photographs and diagrams both in black and white and in full color that illustrate the text adequately enough. This book, aimed at those readers who are interested in the history of Astronautics, is therefore a fine addition to our library, as well as a useful tool for the researchers in the history of astronautics.