SkyMan goes for the forgotten program (Caution: Many Pix)

SkyMan

It's been a while since I've posted a space thread with Newps. Given that the Apollo 10 anniversary is coming up on May 18, I think I'll post this Skylab thread now.

By the end of 1972 the Apollo Moon missions were completed, and NASA had for years been figuring out what to do with the extra hardware lying around. Making a long story short, they decided to launch a Saturn V third stage that had been remodeled into a stand alone space station, on top of a regular Saturn V first and second stage rocket. The space station would be visited by three 3 man crews brought up by Apollo spacecraft, spending progressively longer periods of time on the station. The program was called the Skylab program. At that point in time the longest US space flight on record had lasted 14 days. The USSR held the record for longest manned mission at just under 24 days, but that mission had ended in disaster when the crew was killed on reentry.

On May 14, 1973 the Skylab space station was launched. The Skylab itself had a mass of roughly 85 tons, and in addition it was launched with all the food, oxygen, clothing etc. supplies for the astronauts for 6+ months. To put things in perspective, the International Space Station has a mass of roughly 463 tons. The ISS took 27 space shuttle missions, and 4 Russian unmanned rocket launches to build, much less supply over the lifetime of the station. In other words, six Saturn V launches would have built the ISS. That really gives you an idea of just how frigging powerful the Saturn V was, and the US Government in it's infinite wisdom threw it away to develop the Shuttle. It boggles the mind to think of how far we would have advanced in space if we had simply kept using the Saturn V.

When Skylab was launched (called Skylab 1) the exterior protective shroud was ripped away during launch, as well as one of the primary solar power wings. For a brief period of time NASA believed that that was the death knell for the program. However, as the saying goes, failure was not an option, and the engineers at NASA in 10 days had designed multiple possible ways to protect the station, and 3 in particular were developed for usage. Skylab 2, the first manned mission, was launched on May 25, 1973. The crew was able to protect the exterior of the space station by extending a glorified mylar umbrella out of a small scientific airlock to cover the exposed surface of the station. They were also able to extend the other primary solar panel that had been unable to extend into space when it was pinned in by a strap when the protective shroud ripped off. Skylab 2 had saved the mission and the program. The Commander of Skylab 2 was Pete Conrad, the Commander of Apollo 12 and the third person to walk on the Moon. You would think that walking on the Moon would be the highlight of any astronaut's career, but whenever Pete was asked about his space career, Conrad said the most exciting and important thing he ever did as an astronaut was Skylab 2. Skylab 2 lasted 28 days.

During the Skylab missions the primary areas of research were Earth Resources, e.g. looking at the Earth via cameras etc., Solar, using the Solar Telescope, and medical, e.g. dealing with the effects of long term habitation in space.

Skylab 2 was followed by Skylabs 3 and 4 which lasted 59 and 84 days respectively. These 3 missions DRAMATICALLY increased the man hours in space by NASA. It was during the Skylab missions that NASA learned how to have humans actually live in space, as opposed to just visiting it for short excursions.

To put things in perspective the combined man hours in space of the 3 astronauts in Skylab 2 were more than ALL the man hours in space of all the astronauts during the Mercury and Gemini programs. The man hours in space of Skylab 4 was roughly 81% of ALL the Apollo missions. Total Skylab man hours in space were 12,348, while ALL the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo man hours in space were 9,495. A further point in Skylab's favor is that it used leftover and repurposed hardware, so it's cost, was amazingly cheap, on the order of $2,000,000,000 versus $30,000,000,000 for the Apollo program (in modern day dollars).

Given that Skylab came after the Apollo Moon landings, many, if not most, Americans did not pay much attention to the missions. Probably more people payed attention to where it was going to crash back to Earth in 1979 (it crashed in Australia) than payed attention to the missions themselves. For that reason it's often called the forgotten program. To me, it is one of the GREATEST advances in manned spaceflight ever, so I've been collecting a variety of pieces over the last several years.

First up, are some dollars signed by the 3 crews. You've seen this one before, but given this is a numismatic site, it seems appropriate to post this again. The bills are in mission order. The first bill has an additional signature, Rusty Schweickart, the backup Commander.

All following pictures are new pieces of my collection.

The 3 astronauts who flew on Skylab 2 were; Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz, and Joe Kerwin. The 3 astronauts who flew on Skylab 3 were; Alan Bean, Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott. The 3 astronauts who flew on Skylab 4 were; Jerry Carr, Bill Pogue and Ed Gibson. Here's a picture of the station signed by 7 of them. 8" x 10".

The manned Skylab missions used a two stage Saturn I-B rocket. The second stage was a Saturn IV-B, the same stage that helped launch Apollo spacecraft from Earth orbit to the Moon. Here's a pic of the Skylab 3 S-IVB over the Holy Land. 11" x 14".

Inside the Skylab station engineers weren't sure how to stabilize the astronauts at work, so a triangular grid system was installed. Astronauts had sneakers that had special triangular cleats on them that they would twist into place on the grid to lock themselves into place. 11" x 14".

Here's 's pair of modified sneakers (ex: Bruce McCandless II. He was the backup pilot for Skylab 2, and later became famous during the Shuttle program as the first person to ever do an untethered spacewalk). They are surprisingly heavy, due to the clip.

To give you an idea of how little humans understood living in space, when Skylab was launched it had a fireman's pole going through the length of it to "aid" transportation from one area to another. Needless to say, that was removed fairly quickly. Here's Jack Lousma commenting on movement. 11" x 14".

Just beyond the area that you see in the above picture is the Solar Telescope Mount (STM) work area. Here's Owen Garriott working there. 8" x 10".

One thing all the astronauts loved to do was spacewalks. They had to do them about once a month to retrieve and replace film canisters on the outside of the station. Every astronaut got at least one EVA, and most got 2 or 3. You'll notice that Gibson's comment here is, "Real work - a space walk?" In the picture he is just below the STM. 11" x 14".

Here's Owen Garriott changing film at the STM. 8" x 10".

Of course, if you're in space for any length of time, you also want to have some fun. Here's Jerry Carr and Bill Pogue playing around. 8" x 10".

While I do have other Skylab items, they have all been posted previously, and this thread is about Newps.

Last but not least, here's a fragment of a Skylab oxygen tank recovered in Australia after it crashed.

Yours truly in 2011 with 8 of the Skylab crew members (missing only Pete Conrad who died in the 1990's). Unfortunately, of those 8 in the picture, 4 are now dead. It was fun to meet them. It was the first space convention I ever went to, and I didn't realize how special a moment it was to have the 8 guys together.

BryceM

Great writeup. Thanks.

Those early astronauts were really something. I agree with what you said about the Saturn V. I had always been a big shuttle fan, but in retrospect it looks more and more like a big step backwards.

What we need now is a well defined goal. It's amazing what you can do once you know what you're doing.

PipestonePete

Fantastic.

291fifth

I remember the time when it fell back to earth in 1979. It is hard to believe that was 40 years ago!!!!! I seem to remember that were selling tee shirts in Australia with targets on them.

MattTheRiley

Very cool!

I was born the day Skylab 1 crashed!

jabba

I’ve got some ISS and shuttle stuff I got to watch Skylab burn up over Colorado Springs when I was a kid very sad but we learned a lot from those missions!

Hemispherical

Thank you @SkyMan. That was a fantastic and poignant read.

yosclimber

ricko

@SkyMan.... Thanks for a great post/thread..... Brings back memories of how great our space program was...Cheers, RickO

asheland

Awesome thread!!!

ADG

I was interviewing for a job the day Skylab crashed. The fellow I was talking with was from Australia. I told him we were bombarding his country that day.

Cameonut

@SkyMan
Thanks for posting this. I was in my late teens when Skylab was being assembled. I will admit to not following it closely as it didn't have the same coverage as the moon landings.

These days, we have lost our way with manned space flight - killed in the last decade in favor of sending unmanned probes everywhere.