The Nasa Skylab Program

Skylab was America’s first experimental space station. It was launched by NASA who were also responsible for its operation. 
 

Skylab 3 - NASA - Public Domain

According to NASA there were two main objectives that they wanted to achieve with it. Firstly, they wanted to prove that humans could, live, work and operate in space for long periods of time. Secondly they wanted to extend their knowledge of solar astronomy beyond the limited observations that could be obtained from earth. To achieve these objectives it needed to be designed and built to greatly surpass the working duration of previous missions.  Read more