This unassuming metal fragment did come from outer space, but not before launching from Earth! In fact, it was a part of Skylab, the first space station operated by the United States and launched by NASA on May 14, 1973. It spent 6 years orbiting the Earth and during that time, was operated by 3 separate 3-astronaut crews, which means it was occupied by a total of 9 astronauts over a period of 171 days. Experiments on board covered several different categories including the life sciences, solar physics and astronomy, earth sciences, and materials science.

Its orbit decayed the summer of 1979 and its planned reentry was an international media event as hats, t-shirts and even “Skylab repellant” were sold to mark the event. This fragment came to Griffin MSI as a donation by the country music radio station, WFYR Radio, Chicago in September 1979. Skylab may not be as well-remembered as other human spaceflight missions, but its legacy led to NASA’s cooperation and partnership in the shuttle-Mir program, Russia’s space station. And that work laid part of the groundwork for the 16-nation cooperation on the International Space Station.