Pioneering long-duration spaceflight, the three Skylab missions are chronicled here by an authorial team that includes Skylab astronauts Owen Garriott and Joe Kerwin. Written largely in oral-history style, with extensive quotation from participants in the Skylab program, the work explains the genesis of the space-station concept, the decisions that led to its actual configuration, and the station’s near-death experience when launched in 1973. As space-history readers know, critical pieces of Skylab ripped off during its launch, causing a crisis overcome by repairs the first crew made in one of NASA’s finer moments. Less known was a danger confronted by the second crew that compelled NASA to prepare an improvised rescue mission (which proved unnecessary), and not known at all is the fact that astronaut Alan Bean secretly wrote a journal during his sojourn on Skylab. Published here for the first time, Bean’s diary, added to voice transcripts of space walks, produces the you-are-there immediacy that buffs crave. They’ll be delighted to encounter this original work, which is ideal for browsing. —Gilbert Taylor
