GOODBYE APOLLO

Although Apollo 17 ended the lunar phase of the Apollo programme, America’s investment in its hardware and infrastructure continued to pay back for three more years. A spare S-IVB stage became an orbital workshop called Skylab. This massive 77-tonne space station was launched by a Saturn V on 14 May 1973 and serviced by three crews riding modified Apollo CSMs launched by Saturn IBs. The crews stayed on board for one, two and three months respectively. The final Apollo flight was also to Earth orbit as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. again using a Saturn IB, when an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyu/ spacecraft met and docked in space as a political act of detente, thereby ending the ‘space race’ amicably. The two remaining Saturn Vs were turned into lawn ornaments.