July 11, 1979 - the space vehicle Skylab, one of the largest objects ever put into orbit by man, after terrorizing half our planet, smashes to the ground four years ahead of schedule. It had been launched six years earlier, on May 14, 1973, to study the Sun, but it was the Sun itself that led to its premature demise. But just what happened? Designed to host groups of scientists-astronauts for extended periods of time (up to 84 consecutive days), Skylab had been placed in orbit 435 kilometers from the surface of the Earth, where it crossed very rarefied layers of the atmosphere. Naturally, no matter how rarefied, the atmosphere would have always generated friction with the spaceship and this would have gradually reduced its speed: reducing the speed of an orbiting vehicle means giving in to the Earth's gravity and then, sooner or later, falling to the surface. After performing the necessary calculations, all this would have taken quite a number of years, and so many that the return to the surface was expected in 1981. Before that year, Nasa, the American space administration, had planned on using the space shuttle to dock with the orbiting Skylab and give it the right "push", which would have increased the time before it would return to the surface of our planet. But the calculations were made without the Sun! Despite the predictions, the end of the Seventies was marked by exceptional activity by our star, which increased the density of the layers of the atmosphere in Skylab's orbit. The result: an increase in friction, a reduction in speed and, finally, a disastrous re-entry, which among other things occured three days prior to the celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the conquest of the Moon. And all because of the variability of a star that for thousands of years was considered to be the symbol of perfection and stability.
July 11, 1979 - the space vehicle Skylab, one of the largest objects ever put into orbit by man, after terrorizing half our planet, smashes to the ground four years ahead of schedule. It had been launched six years earlier, on May 14, 1973, to study the Sun, but it was the Sun itself that led to its premature demise. But just what happened? Designed to host groups of scientists-astronauts for extended periods of time (up to 84 consecutive days), Skylab had been placed in orbit 435 kilometers from the surface of the Earth, where it crossed very rarefied layers of the atmosphere. Naturally, no matter how rarefied, the atmosphere would have always generated friction with the spaceship and this would have gradually reduced its speed: reducing the speed of an orbiting vehicle means giving in to the Earth's gravity and then, sooner or later, falling to the surface. After performing the necessary calculations, all this would have taken quite a number of years, and so many that the return to the surface was expected in 1981. Before that year, Nasa, the American space administration, had planned on using the space shuttle to dock with the orbiting Skylab and give it the right "push", which would have increased the time before it would return to the surface of our planet. But the calculations were made without the Sun! Despite the predictions, the end of the Seventies was marked by exceptional activity by our star, which increased the density of the layers of the atmosphere in Skylab's orbit. The result: an increase in friction, a reduction in speed and, finally, a disastrous re-entry, which among other things occured three days prior to the celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the conquest of the Moon. And all because of the variability of a star that for thousands of years was considered to be the symbol of perfection and stability.
