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Skylab 2

Skylab 2 (also SL-2 and SLM-1) was the first manned mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station. The mission was launched on a Saturn IB rocket and carried a three-person crew to the station. The name Skylab 2 also refers to the vehicle used for that mission. The Skylab 2 mission established a record for human spaceflight duration and its crew were the first space station occupants ever to come home alive (since the Salyut 1 crew died during reentry).

The manned Skylab missions were officially designated Skylab 2, 3, and 4. However, a series of mistakes during the design phase of the mission patches resulted in the patches reading Skylab I, Skylab II, and Skylab 3 respectively.