- SKYLAB Apollo Telescope Mount Solar Observatory on SKYLAB SKYLAB and the attached Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) were launched into near earth orbit by a Saturn V rocket on 14 May 1973. The Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) contained two NRL ultraviolet instruments for photographing the Sun and its spectra. The following extracts of papers by Jack Eddy and Richard Tousey describe the SKYLAB mission, ...wwwsolar.nrl.navy.mil/skylab_atm.html