During the second crewed Skylab mission a rescue flight was assembled as a backup contingency. The Saturn IB rocket, AS-208 was assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Launch Complex 39 for possible use. It used a modified Command Module that was to be launched with a crew of 2. The standard Skylab Command Module accommodates a crew of three with storage lockers on the aft bulkhead for resupply of experiment film and other equipment as well as the return of exposed film, data tapes and experiment samples. To convert the standard CM to a rescue vehicle, the storage lockers are removed and replaced with two crew couches in order to seat five crewmen. This launch vehicle and command module were later launched as Skylab 4.
After Skylab 3 was launched, it developed a problem with two of the Command/Service Modules Reaction Control System thruster quads. They were leaking fuel, reducing the available quads to just two, the minimum for continuation of the mission. NASA monitered the situation. If there had been a need for a rescue mission, NASA announced on August 4, 1973, the mission would be flown by Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 backup crewmen Vance Brand and Don Lind.
After the Skylab 4 launch, another rescue flight was assembled as a backup contingency. The Saturn IB rocket, AS-209 was assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Launch Complex 39 for possible use. It also used a modified Command Module that was to be launched with a crew of 2. This launch vehicle and command module were later used as a backup to the ASTP mission. The AS-209 Saturn IB launch vehicle and command module were never launched.
Skylab re-entered the earth's atmosphere amid worldwide hysteria on July 11, 1979, with chunks of the disintegrating space station crashing over a wide area of Australia.
The Skylab MDA flight unit was flown from MSFC to Martin Marietta's Denver division where it was to be outfitted with controls and display panels for solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, storage vaults for experiment film, and a thruster attitude control system.
A study was conducted at MSFC on the effects of various pitch attitudes at the time of the Skylab payload shroud jettison on the possibility that the shroud would collide with the Skylab at a later date.
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