1-154-864 - NASA/Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Large solar prominence in extreme ultraviolet light, 1973. This picture taken by Skylab 4 on 19 Dec 1973, shows one of the most spectacular solar flares ever recorded. Skylab, America's first space station launched on 14 May 1973, carried many scientific experiments. The biggest was the Apollo Telescope Mount which contained eight instruments to study the sun at various wavelengths. Skylab was visited by three 3 man crews between May 1973 and February 1974, the last of which set a new space endurance record of 84 days.