The American space station "Skylab" was launched into orbit on May 14, 1973. According to the plans of NASA specialists, it should have been in operation for almost a hundred years. However, this station was flooded by the Americans already in 1979. And the reason for its liquidation still remains an unsolved mystery.
Skylab has proven to be one of the most expensive United States programs in the history of space exploration. The project cost was about three billion dollars at the prices of that time. A truly astronomical amount.
The station was designed and built by the famous designer Wernher von Braun. Its orbital block was created on the basis of the S-4B rocket, which is the third stage of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle. The rocket's hydrogen tank was converted into a two-story room for a crew of three. On the ground floor there were utility rooms, and on the upper floor there was a research laboratory. Together with the main unit of the Apollo spacecraft docked to it, the volume of the station was 330 cubic meters.
At the station, supplies of water, food and clothing for the astronauts of the three planned expeditions were prepared in advance. The station's payload weight was 103 tons.
Trouble began immediately after the station was put into near-earth orbit with an altitude of about 435 kilometers. In the first 63 seconds of the flight, a high-speed pressure tore off part of the anti-meteorite shield, as well as one of the two solar panels. The second battery was jammed by a piece of a torn off meteorite shield. So, in any case, NASA engineers announced.
The set of astronomical instruments moved away from the station and opened up its solar panels, but their power was not enough. Due to the breakdown of the anti-meteorite shield, which also served as a thermal protection shield, the temperature inside the station began to rise.
The first expedition, which left for the station on May 25, 1973, had to devote most of its time to repair work. The crew members went into outer space three times.
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After working at the station until June 22, the astronauts undocked from the station, flew around it, and returned to Earth after spending 28 days in space.
The second expedition went to Skylab on July 28 and spent 59 days in orbit.
The third expedition started on November 16, 1973 and was the longest, having spent 84 days in space. And she was the last one aboard the expensive station.
And then something strange began to happen. Raised into a high orbit, the station began to quickly approach the Earth. And in 1979, the Skylab was sunk. NASA made every effort to get its debris into the Indian Ocean. Despite this, about a thousand small fragments woke up in a metal rain on the densely populated area of Western Australia. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The reason why the Americans flooded the station has not yet been clarified. Over time, experts and journalists began to conduct independent investigations.
The most sensational material of journalistic investigations was published in the newspaper "Prophecies and Sensations", No. 336, August 1998. The article claimed that Skylab was captured by aliens. Therefore, she was deliberately flooded along with two aliens on board, who could not leave the station that had de-orbited.
Experts, having examined the published images of Skylab, also noticed that in the front of the station there is a power truss weighing about 11.4 tons, thanks to the existence of which the station fairing seemed to be an unnecessary element. The question arose: why put into orbit an extra load of almost 12 tons, if each kilogram of the withdrawn weight turns out to be literally golden in cost?
Having thoroughly studied the design of the station, many experts came to the conclusion that it was specially created for docking with spacecraft of extraterrestrial structures, or, more simply, with unidentified flying objects.
It was thanks to the fairing that an alien vehicle could be attached to the airlock, the dimensions of which could be 35-40 times the size of the station itself. And it had a length of 24.6 meters and a diameter of 6.6 meters. The task of the fairing farm was to withstand the load when docking the 80-ton station with a ship weighing more than 2 thousand tons. Whether this is true or not remains a mystery. But the side docking port was originally incorporated into the station design. And NASA experts could not explain its purpose. And, most likely, they did not want to.
Some scientists are of the opinion that there was no damage during the launch of the Skylab into orbit. And the astronauts of the first expedition, who went into outer space three times, prepared the station for docking with a giant UFO.
Most likely, "Skylab" was not captured by aggressive aliens, and the main goal of putting the station into space into high orbit was to establish long-term contact with representatives of an alien civilization. But something went wrong. Perhaps this is why the station was deliberately flooded. But, is it really so, we, as always, do not know.