Gordo in Gordo's Skylab Deterrent (1979)
In this two-week vignette from the late Seventies, Gordo finds himself in a state of perpetual terror caused by an unseen threat from above . Like many millions of other people walking the surface of planet Earth at the time, he was obsessed with one plea: Please don't let Skylab fall on me. Launched in 1973, Skylab was NASA's first swing at a permanent orbital space station. At 80 feet long, 55 feet wide , and a towering three-and-a-half stories tall , it's no wonder that this massive piece of metal was much on everyone's mind when it was announced that it was coming back to Earth -- earlier than planned . Although Skylab was only briefly occupied, NASA had intended to keep the empty station in orbit as a docking point for future Space Shuttle missions . But stronger-than-expected atmospheric drag ended up pulling Skylab far enough out of its orbit that, by 1979, the space agency had little choice but to bring the behemoth down . It's no wonder that the image of 20...
