United States, 1973-80 AD., Skylab medal, by the L. G. Balfour Company of Massachusetts, Pewter.

United States, Skylab medal, by the L. G. Balfour Company of Massachusetts, ca. 1973-80 AD.,
Pewter Medal (30 mm / 14,84 g),
Obv.: Skylab // MAY25. 1973 - JUNE 22. 1973 / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , Skylab orbiting the Earth, view of the space station between sun and earth.
Rev.: SKYLAB I / CONRAD·KERWIN·WEITZ , top view of the space station, names of the first crew below.
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A set of 13 Balfours medals were originally not available to the public and only given to NASA to present to their employees. They contain medals for selected Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. There is a Pewter set but they are also available in Silver and Gold. Each medal features a unique front and back design, they are distinguishable small, stocky size with heavily raised reliefs, a style perfected by the Balfours company. The Skylab and Apollo Soyuz Balfours medals were minted after the above set was released to the public.

Struck for NASA by the L. G. Balfour Company of Massachusetts these medals were for distribution to NASA and space industry employees that worked on the missions. They were not originally available to the public but in 1973 the International Numismatic Agency, 96 Prince Street, New York, New York was appointed exclusive distributors to the public for the 13 medals. The medals distributed by the International Numismatic Agency were only available in sets which came in custom designed leatherette chests lined with silk and velvet. Today on the secondary market they can be found both in sets and individually.
The medals were struck in both sterling silver and pewter. The designs were taken from sketches and photographs approved by NASA artist and technicians associated with each mission. The medals commemorate the following missions: Freedom 7, Friendship 7, Gemini 4, Gemini 6 & 7, Gemini 8, Apollo 8, Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17.
These 1-3/16 inch medals are struck in a special three dimensional high relief technique developed by the Balfour Company. These medals have a look like no other high relief medals you've probably ever encountered. The relief is so deep and the angles so crisp that you'll swear the metal in the recesses is tissue thin. The International Numismatic Agency press release in the November 1973 Numismatist stated the Balfour method "stresses the carved contours of the design elements. This unusual perspective involves the viewer as a participant in the drama of each mission." The medals are quite interesting and the photographs do not do them justice.
The International Numismatic Agency marketed the 13-medal sterling silver set, in the aforementioned leatherette case, for $150 plus $1.50 postage and insurance. The 13-medal pewter set, also in a leatherette case, sold for $45 plus $1.50 postage and insurance.

Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of 169,950 pounds (77 t). Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the third mission, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by, ready for launch if needed to rescue the crew in orbit. Skylab 2 SL-2 (SLM-1)
On Mission Skylab 2 SL-2 (SLM-1): Commander Pete Conrad, Pilot Paul Weitz and Science Pilot Joseph Kerwin. Launch date 1973-05-25 13:00:00 UTC - Landing date 1973-06-22 13:49:48 UTC, 28.03 days duration.
Skylab included an Apollo Telescope Mount (a multi-spectral solar observatory), Multiple Docking Adapter with two docking ports, Airlock Module with EVA hatches, and the Orbital Workshop, the main habitable volume of the station. Power came from solar arrays, as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.
The station was damaged at launch when the micrometeroid shield separated from the station and tore away, depriving the station of most of its power, removing protection from intense solar heating, and threatening to make the station unusable. The first crew was able to save it in the first ever in-space major repair, by deploying a replacement heat shade and freeing the single remaining, jammed main solar array.
Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. The Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP), was used to view the Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended.
Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it. However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia.
After Skylab's demise, the focus shifted to the reusable Spacelab module, an orbital workshop that could be deployed from the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth. The next American space station project was Space Station Freedom, which was never completed, although it eventually led to the construction of the US Orbital Segment of the International Space Station, starting in 1998. Shuttle-Mir was another project, and led to the U.S. funding Spektr, Priroda, and the Mir Docking Module in the 1990s.