Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project suit systems (1969–75)

Abstract

Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) built on the Apollo program by using vehicles, certified suit designs, and existing hardware. However, Skylab and ASTP were both a change in direction from Apollo. Where Apollo was a race to the Moon, Skylab was meant to establish long-duration US manned presence in easily accessible space and ASTP attempted to build cooperation with a nation that was still a philosophical and potentially military adversary. The long durations in zero gravity would provide the opportunity to develop approaches to counteracting the negative effects of such an environment on spacefarers, thus enabling travel to distant places such as Mars and beyond. The cooperation was an attempt to move past political differences to provide potentially greater safety to spacefarers of both nations. While both programs spanned only a few years — and, in the case of ASTP, one mission — these programs represented the beginning of activities that are still currently evolving.