Complete Skylab mission footage collected in 26-DVD set
NASA's first space station archive footage released in comprehensive collection
1An exhaustive archival effort
The team behind the Searching for Skylab documentary has compiled nearly all surviving footage from NASA's first space station into a 26-DVD collection. The three-volume set includes an updated version of their 2019 documentary and encompasses all materials transmitted from the station or returned by the three Apollo spacecraft that visited it. From pre-launch preparations to crew activities, every detail is preserved in this archive that represents years of meticulous research and restoration work.
2Skylab's troubled beginning
Launched in 1973 on the last Saturn V rocket to fly, Skylab lost one solar array and its micrometeoroid shield during launch. The first crew deployed a makeshift sunshade and freed the remaining solar array pinned by debris. Without these critical repairs, the $2.2 billion station might have become unusable. After hosting three crews, Skylab re-entered Earth's atmosphere in 1979, scattering debris over Western Australia. The station's challenging early days set the stage for remarkable human ingenuity in space.
3The hunt for lost footage
Producer Dwight Steven-Boniecki uncovered numerous lost recordings during the archival process. For instance, 30 minutes of solar observations from the Apollo Telescope Mount were missing from official archives until Steven-Boniecki discovered them in kinescopes he'd acquired years earlier at auction. He synchronized these silent images with crew audio recorded the same day. Such discoveries form a significant portion of the collection, revealing aspects of the mission previously thought lost to history.
4Challenging restoration processes
Many recordings suffered from missing or poor-quality audio. Steven-Boniecki describes how one collector used an iPhone to record SL-2 crew tour audio from a projector speaker. He processed this raw audio with noise reduction techniques to sync it with pristine footage. Some 1973 transmissions were so degraded by weak signals that subtitles were necessary. The collection's materials faithfully represent the technological limitations of early 1970s space broadcasting.
5Daily life aboard Skylab
The collection contains rare footage of daily operations aboard Skylab. Crew arrivals, spacewalks, and scientific experiments were often broadcast live, while film canisters returned with astronauts after each mission. One training film shows equipment transfer tests during EVAs. Marked 'Do Not Project,' this reel may be the only surviving copy. Such details provide invaluable documentation of station operations, offering insights into the realities of early long-duration spaceflight.
6Technical collection details
The DVD format was chosen because the original kinescope recordings wouldn't benefit from Blu-ray's HD capabilities. Physical volumes cost £89.99 each, with digital editions priced at $69.99-$79.99. The current three-volume set covers: Volume 1 (SL-1 launch), Volume 2 (SL-2 and SL-3 crews), and Volume 3 (SL-4 crew). Planned for 2024, Volume 4 will document Skylab's reactivation and re-entry, including Channel 9 Australia's footage of the station breaking up in the night sky over Western Australia.
7Future archival projects
After completing the Skylab collection, Steven-Boniecki plans to gather footage from Apollo's final mission - the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). 'There's a LOT of unseen material there,' he notes, having already begun work on this next endeavor. The 1975 ASTP mission marked the historic docking of US and Soviet spacecraft during the Cold War, representing the first international space cooperation - a frequently overlooked but pivotal moment in space history.
8Preserving space history
This collection serves as the definitive visual record of NASA's early space station program, valuable to both space enthusiasts and researchers. Steven-Boniecki's painstaking work has recovered numerous lost documents, deepening our understanding of Skylab's story. Beyond documenting the challenges and triumphs of early space exploration, the archive offers lessons relevant to future space stations and international collaboration in orbit.