When Skylab's third and last team of astronauts lands in the Pacific off lower California this week, after a record 84 days in earth orbit, a good deal more than an extraordinarily successful mission will be coming to an end. Except for next year's scheduled space rendezvous between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts, there are no plans to send anyone from the U.S. into orbit before the close of the decade. Friday's splashdown concludes not only the ambitious $2.6 billion Skylab program but an entire era of space exploration.
The final voyage set records...
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