What rocket did America use in the late 70s for manned space flight?

Question

Up until 1973 we used the Saturn V rocket the last time was to launch Skylab I believe...Then if I remember it wasn't until 1981 when the space shuttle was first launched...So what did we use between 73 and 81 for manned space flight?

I am pretty sure that had something to service the Skylab...I can't remember how long it stayed operational though

Answer 1

Four manned flights took place after the last Apollo lunar mission: three delivering crews to Skylab and one for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. These missions used the Saturn IB. The Saturn IB was a precursor to the Saturn V, and the second stage of the Saturn IB was the same as the third stage of the Saturn V. It was called the S-IVB. Skylab was in fact a modified S-IVB, launched on the last operational Saturn V in 1973.

The Saturn IB had been used for unmanned tests in the Apollo program, including heat shield tests, examination of the behaviour of liquid fuel in zero gravity (important for the shutdown - coast - restart profile for the S-IVB in lunar missions), the first unmanned lunar module test (designated Apollo 5) and the first manned Apollo flight, Apollo 7. For these early tests it was launched from Launch Complex 37 at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, a launch site specifically designed for Saturn I and Saturn IB launches. For the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz launches it made use of Launch Complex 39, which was the pad used for all Saturn V launches. In fact, it also used the same launch platform and launch umbilical tower (the big red tower with all the arms that swing back at launch). There was a minor complication with that, however. The S-IVB and Apollo spacecraft sit at the top of the rocket. Since the Saturn V was considerably taller than the Saturn IB the umbilical service arms for these sections were too high. To get around this a platform known as the milk stool was built to elevate the Saturn IB such that the top was at the same level as the Saturn V so the umbilical arms could be used without modification.

The last Saturn IB launch was in 1975. Between then and the first shuttle flight in 1981 there were no manned US space flights at all.

Answer 2

the booster used for the Skylab and Apollo Soyuz missions was the Saturn 1B. This was also the booster that launched Skylab module and was used for unmanned tests of the Apollo hardware, and a couple of large satellite launches. The only manned Saturn1B Apollo launch was Apollo7. All later Apollo program launches were SaturnV.

Answer 3

Was this not a manned flight?

July, 1975 - American Apollo (18) and Soviet Soyuz 19 dock, the first international spacecraft rendezvous

Answer 4

Nothing. There were no manned missions in that time.