Skylab Orbital Workshop

NASA built two workshops. The first flew; this is the backup, which was kept in case a second station was needed and was never launched. Inside you look down through a grated floor into the wardroom where the astronauts ate at a table with foot restraints, at the tiny sleeping cubicles with their bags strapped to the wall, and at the collapsible shower that took an hour to use and clean. Look for the exercise bicycle and the window through which the crews photographed the Earth. Skylab was where the practical business of living in orbit was worked out: how to sleep, wash, cook and stay fit when there is no up and down.

The flown Skylab was damaged at launch, losing a solar panel and its heat shield, and was rescued by its first crew in a daring repair; it fell out of orbit in 1979 and scattered pieces across Western Australia. The backup came to the Smithsonian in 1975 and was one of the original exhibits when the building opened, standing in the old Space Race hall for decades. It returned in July 2026 as the centrepiece of the new Living in the Space Age gallery, with the Hubble test vehicle beside it. It remains the only space station most people will ever walk through.

Did You Know? When the flown Skylab fell to Earth in 1979 and dropped pieces on an Australian town, the local council sent NASA a four hundred dollar fine for littering.