Skylab’s makeshift shade: how a folding parasol saved America’s first space station
Skylab launched with its micrometeoroid shield torn away, one solar wing missing and the other jammed, leaving the station baking at about 54°C. NASA engineers, led by Jack Kinzler, designed a 22-by-24-foot folding parasol in days, which was carried into orbit aboard Apollo and deployed through a small airlock to shade the workshop. The parasol cooled the interior within days, while a spacewalk later freed the surviving solar wing to restore power, allowing Skylab to operate with three crews of experiments.