Mercury, Skylab, Spacehab, International Space Station: A Continuum

We have conducted real research in space. Virtually all that we conducted in the first decade and a half of the space age was government funded and basic research like the carrier vehicles we call satellites and Sputniki, but direction human interaction began with Project Mercury. When the Apollo program ended with success, we got back to research again. Skylab was using Apollo hardware, using Apollo systems in a manner that offered spacious accomodations for researchers. Education began to move into space. This document describes Skylab's role in spaceborne experiments.