Two seamstresses stitch together a sun-shade for Skylab Orbital Workshop (OWS), the first U.S. experimental space station in orbit, which lost its thermal protection shield during the launch on May 14, 1973. Without the heat shield, the temperature inside the Orbital Workshop became dangerously high, rendering the workshop uninhabitable and threatened deterioration of the interior insulation and adhesive. Engineers and scientists at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) worked tirelessly around the clock on the emergency repair procedure. The Skylab crew and the repair kits were launched just 11 days after the incident. The crew successfully deployed the twin-pole sail parasol sun-shade during their EVA (Extravehicular Activity) the next day.
