calavius and everybody around here is
looked at the bird and it looks real
good right retch and you're being
awaited by the USS Ticonderoga and we're
waiting to see you back here in Houston
- oh right you can relate to the Tyco
we've got their Fox Corpening our hook
is down Roger - this was Skylab on the
final day of the first manned mission
the crew had this last view as they made
preparations for return to Earth
everything here it had been a successful
mission the large majority of scientific
objectives were accomplished but the
bright orange sunshade the single solar
wing presented a striking reminder of a
mission that was something more than
routine a mission that gave new meaning
to the term manned spaceflight - 13 12
11 10 9 8 we have ignition sequence has
started 6 5 4 3
these Skylab lifting on the
it was the afternoon of May 14 1973 when
the unmanned Skylab Saturn workshop was
rolled along at Cape Kennedy on the way
to its assigned orbit 236 nautical miles
in space the cloud cover was heavy on
launch day and prevented tracking
cameras from seeing an event that
occurred about one minute into the
mission at the point of maximum
vibration telemetry sensed premature
deployment of the meteoroid shield
followed by a weak electrical signal
from the workshop solar arrays clearly
there had been a problem but the exact
nature wasn't known until after orbital
insertion during the first revolution
Skylab temperatures began to rise
rapidly and pieces of the puzzle started
to fall in place in NASA engineers
surmised that the anomalies were most
likely related it was felt that the
meteoroids shield had been completely
lost at deployment which accounted for
the high heat levels also that fragments
of the meteorite shield had jammed or
otherwise hindered full deployment of
the solar array panels failure of these
panels which were designed to furnish
about half of skylabs electrical power
meant that the total power burden would
have to be borne by solar panels of the
Apollo telescope mount by early evening
workshop temperatures had risen above
the level of safety launching of the
crew the following day received an
indefinite hold pending satisfactory
solutions flight support and engineering
teams were immediately set in motion to
find the answers at stake was the future
of the entire Skylab program the most
urgent need was to achieve a thermal
electrical balance
this meant maneuvering to an optimum
flight attitude for solar requirements
that were in direct conflict too much
solar radiation would drive temperatures
higher increasing the chances of
component damage and food spoilage on
the other hand generation of electrical
power to drive heat exchangers and food
freezers was wholly dependent on
exposure to the Sun while flight
controllers struggled to achieve this
delicate balance other team had the
major objective of designing a thermal
shield that could be deployed on the
workshop to make it habitable NASA
centers and private industry responded
with a variety of shield concepts the
most promising designs were released for
fabrication finally they were subjected
to functional testing by the fifth day
of the mission the choice had been
narrowed to a model called the parasol
it had good functional reliability and
the crew would be able to deploy it from
inside the workshop through a scientific
airlock another shield the twin pole
sunshade would also be carried on the
mission as a backup here in the Skylab
underwater simulator at the Marshall
Space Flight Center crews practiced
extra-vehicular installation of the
sunshade and conditions approximating
zero-g as for the solar wings simulation
methods were mostly inconclusive little
was known about the extent of wing
damage at this point and the crew could
only speculate on how best to make them
deploy at Mission Control
Solar orientation of the spacecraft had
begun to yield positive results
temperatures still too high for
habitation were stabilized and
electrical power was sufficient for
operating vital systems and equipment
though still precarious the situation
had been checked there was reason to
believe it would remain stable until the
astronauts launched now scheduled for
May 25th
ten days behind the original schedule on
the day before launch the parasol team
raced the clock to deliver the flight
article on time they were down to the
last 30-minute extension as the parasol
packed in the flight canister was loaded
for transfer to Cape Kennedy
in spite of a rigid schedule hopes ran
high that the parasol would do the job
attention now turned to the astronaut
who would attempt to put it in place
in the early morning hours of May 25th
Skylab - with both thermal shields
stowed aboard was well along in the
countdown the crew meanwhile made ready
to embark on their historic mission this
all Navy crew consisted of Captain
Charles Pete Conrad Skylab commander a
veteran of both the Gemini and Apollo
programs
commander Paul Weitz who would be Skylab
pilot for the mission had been a member
of the support crew of Apollo 12 and
commander Joseph Kerwin scientists pilot
who would be the first American
physician in space the 10-day delay had
been a giant cram course for all
concerned especially for the crew and
their job was only partially complete
the execution of all the planning effort
was now solely in their hands
following a smooth launch Skylab to
maneuver to the proper flight path
attitude for its initial downrange orbit
by mid-afternoon the crew had overtaken
the workshop TV picture beginning to
come in now to the control center Cali
Houston where AOS at Guam for the next
10 minutes
daylight 1.5 mile 29 feet per second
Roger paid copy they effected rendezvous
and performed a fly around to assess the
damage both predictions were confirmed
Roger copy is gone completely off the
bird Solar wait what is it that finally
deployed into reason if you've got
different readings that's the metric
between your three solar panels as
there's a bulge of meteorite shield
underneath it in the middle and it looks
to be holding again I project uh be okay
it looks like to me right chill at the
upper fence panel on the fan plank has
wrapped around it just slightly early
now my guess is that aren't easiest
thing to do and just go to the end and
try and deploy it Roger
Pete Witt from which side of the says is
the v-rod shield slightly wrapped around
his on the side of the main tunnel
before docking the PRU attempted to free
the wing although the trial was
unsuccessful the TV pictures seen here
proved invaluable in devising the
technique that ultimately worked
following a night sleep in the command
module the crew spent the morning of
Saturday the 26th activating and
checking systems in the multiple docking
adaptor and airlock module
later they were given a goal to enter
the workshop by late afternoon the
canister was positioned in the
scientific airlock ready for parasol
extension okay thank you
we had a little dropout rate and so far
the ride extension is some four hours
after the operation began the thermal
parasol was deployed it was then placed
in position close to the workshop skin
it took about two revolutions of Skylab
before temperatures began to fall
projections showed that if the present
trend continued the workshop would be
below 100 degrees the following day it
wouldn't be the most comfortable
environment but after a discussion with
the crew the decision was made to
proceed the next morning with the normal
flight plan the crew put in a long
trying day activating the workshop
getting things organized and in the
proper place was a chore in itself
however they were discovering to their
satisfaction that moving big pieces of
gear presented no problem in the
weightless environment by noon Monday
the 28th with the workshop completely
activated primary emphasis was on
getting the biomedical experiment
started this was the first in a series
of lower body negative pressure and
vector cardiogram experiments paul weitz
the subject
Gerwin the observer there followed a
workout on the bicycle ergometer to
check metabolic effectiveness and to
evaluate the bicycle as an exerciser for
long-duration mission other medical
experiments conducted over the next few
days included blood sampling from each
crewmember to satisfy the five blood
study experiments body mass measurement
to determine each crewmen's daily weight
and to validate the use of this device
for weighing in zero-g a rotating litter
chair a part of the human vestibular
function experiment tested for motion
sickness rotation perception and ability
to determine orientation in addition to
these and other medical experiments
science experiments were simultaneously
being performed here Pete Conrad
operates the Apollo telescope mount
control and display panel in preparation
for the solar physics studies in
subsequent operations data such as this
active region of the Sun was recorded by
the telescope the earth resources
experiments also got underway after
activation of the six remote sensing
systems from a broad field of view
provided by this large space platform
the systems began photographing selected
portions of the Earth's surface in
visible and near-infrared spectral
regions
although the crew had earlier
encountered a number of equipment
problems the result of excessive
temperatures the prospects now looked
bright for a full 28-day mission the
temperature had stabilized in the mid
70s the food was good and so was morale
and up to now the 4,700 watts of
available power appeared to be adequate
as long as high load experiments were
staggered however by the fifth day some
of the storage batteries had begun to
perform in a degraded manner the power
shortage grew critical and it became
apparent that to carry out the mission
the jammed solar panel would have to be
deployed meanwhile at Marshall in the
underwater simulator techniques were
being developed based on TV coverage of
the solar wing using only tools and
equipment like those aboard Skylab the
backup crew developed a set of
procedures they felt would do the job on
June 7th astronauts Conrad and Kerwin
made their exit to put the plan into
operation okay we're out there brilliant
right there looks like enough grub to
get the cutter help Joe stabilize as the
simulations had shown access to the
solar wing was the big problem what with
few handholds or foot respring it was
solved by joining pole sections of the
twin pole sunshade anchoring it by
hooking the pair of cutters onto the
strap that held the wing
thus a temporary handrail was fashioned
that allowed Pete Conrad access to the
solar wing where he attached a tether
the cutters then severed the strap and
the tether was pulled taut to free the
wing actuator after the crew returned to
Skylab an attitude change placed the
solar array system into the Sun
we're after a period of warming the
hydraulic dampers the panel arrays fully
deployed within hours the electrical
power surged to almost double the
previous level it meant that the power
management scheme could be abandoned and
the original flight plan could be
resumed in the days that followed the
nagging problems that had plagued the
astronauts from the start
began to resolve the mission began to
sound much more routine more like a
normal working day experiments were
coming off like clockwork and a wealth
of scientific data was being gathered
experiments such as this one in
materials processing
with more leisure it was not uncommon
for the men of Skylab to indulge
themselves in the fluidity of movement
in zero-g
the weightless condition also simplified
sleep accommodations since there was
really no up or down the only
requirement was a sleeping bag type of
restraint and as mentioned earlier heavy
objects were easily handled it was the
small pieces that sometimes got away but
even when objects were lost they
generally turned up sooner or later
on the air-conditioning screen there to
be reclaimed on day 29 after performing
final closeout of the orbital workshop
the crew Don spacesuits for the return
leg of their mission scalloped Houston
where Neto CMG here go for undocking by
okay we're free we got four tenths of a
foot per second Houston
Sify Skylab after undocking they
remained on station briefly to obtain
photographic coverage following the
orbit the command module its heat shield
trailing of fiery plume reenters the
atmosphere for the first time in about a
month the crew experienced the forces of
gravity that kind of overspending by a
for sonic boom scallop Houston through
Rawat Teddy rate
Oh
splashdown occurred some 700 miles off
Southern California near the recovery
ship the USS Ticonderoga after retrieval
and positioning on the flight deck
the command module hatch was open one by
one the crewman stepped forth unassisted
seemingly undaunted by their return to
normal gravity
they accommodated to normal activity
within several hours in San Diego
the first Skylab crewmen were received
by a local and officiating prom they had
reason to be proud the large majority of
scheduled experimental data was gathered
and all subsystem operational test
objectives were achieved all this in
spite of the problems encountered from
the stock
problems that in the final analysis
required the presence of man to reason
to decide to execute solutions as only
he can
you