SkyMan goes off the deep end. (Caution: Many Pix)

SkyMan

Probably most of you over the last 15+ years have seen pictures of the International Space Station (ISS), or of the Earth from the ISS, or of the astronauts and cosmonauts inhabiting the ISS. The ISS is the second space station that the US has (partially) constructed. The First US space station was called Skylab. It was launched May 14, 1973. The Skylab missions were an extension of the Apollo program (originally Skylab was called the Apollo Applications program) and used hardware developed for the Apollo program.

Officially, the launch of the Skylab space station was called Skylab 1. There were then three 3 man crews that occupied the space station over the ensuing year. These three missions lasted 28, 59 and 84 days respectively. They were numbered Skylab(s) 2 through 4. Each of these missions was a new World Record for longest manned time in space. The Soviet Union did not surpass the Skylab 4 eighty-four day record until 4 years later. To put things in perspective, the mass (essentially, the weight) of Skylab was 170,000 pounds. The Soviet Union's space stations of that era, Salyut, had masses of ~ 41,000 pounds.

I have been lucky enough to win at auction three $1 bills signed by the entire crews of Skylab 2, 3 and 4. Here are the bills (Rusty Schweickart was the backup Commander for Skylab 2, hence his inclusion):

For those of you just interested in numismatics, that's the end of this thread.
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One of the neat things about collecting space memorabilia is that it has international appeal. What REALLY sent SkyMan off the deep end this year was being contacted by a TV production company. I HAVE SIGNED A NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT, so I can only make very broad brushstroke statements here. The TV company is producing a new show that will deal with space history.

A film crew came by my place earlier this year, and filmed yours truly and various parts of my space collection for a new TV show. The show will air in Europe. It will be interesting to see how the show does.
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With regards to my space collection, the year 2016 saw yours truly going off the deep end, although my actual purchases for the year were relatively small. I printed up (print size 11" X 14") a nice picture of the Skylab 1 launch that I found online. The picture was taken by astronaut Bruce McCandless II (the first person to do an untethered spacewalk). The picture shows Skylab 1 launching in the background, while Skylab 2 is in the foreground on it's launchpad, surrounded by it's gantry. I had the picture signed by at least one astronaut from each of the three Skylab crews.

With regards to flown hardware, if you are going to go off the deep end, it helps to pick up something that will help you float... Needless to say, the object at the launch of a mission is to make it to space. However, the planners had to assume this might not happen, and had to prepare for a worst case scenario. At the top of the Apollo rocket was the escape rocket that could pull the (manned) Command Module (CM) off the top of the Saturn V rocket in case the rocket malfunctioned. The CM was designed to float in the ocean once it landed. Of course, something could go wrong with the CM too, such as it could leak once it landed. So, as a last resort the astronauts were equipped with water wings to keep them afloat in the ocean if they had to bail out of a sinking CM.

I managed to pick up a pair of Skylab 4 flown water wings this year. As mentioned, Skylab equipment is Apollo equipment in all but name, so all the Apollo missions used the same sort of water wings. Here are some pix of the water wings:

The water wings would be strapped on to the astronauts when they were suited up, preparatory to going to the launch pad. One pouch would be under each armpit. The water wings functioned like airplane life preservers. If the astronaut had to go into the ocean, they would pull the tabs on the water wings when they exited the CM, and the water wings would inflate by compressed gas canisters. As mentioned, the water wings I got were flown on Skylab 4. Here is a picture of the Apollo 12 crew about to go into the transportation van that would take them to the launchpad. Note the water wings under the astronaut's armpits.

My other major acquisition this year was a flown map used on Apollo 12. As you know, last year I purchased the Apollo 12 flown Flight Plan. One of the things the astronauts had assigned to do during the mission was to photograph potential future landing sites on the Moon. These operations were delineated in the Flight Plan. The flown map I purchased was used to track landmarks during the 42nd orbit of the Moon while imaging the Descartes plateau. The Descartes region is where Apollo 16 landed in 1972.

What I plan to do is to make high quality copies of the Flight Plan pages associated with imaging Descartes during orbit 42, and frame them with the flown map pages. Here's the map (several pages were scotch taped together before the mission, and are roughly 10.5" X 28" in total size), as well as some of the associated Flight Plan pages. In the close-up of the map you'll see DE-1, which was the primary Descartes site to be imaged.

Here DE-1 is the Descartes site. FM-1 stands for Fra Mauro-1. Fra Mauro is where Apollo 14 landed.

Those are the major purchases I made this year.

1630Boston

The @skyman collection is always a pleasure to view and thanks for the fantastic, factual and fun descriptions and history of the memorabilia.

TJC2

Fantastic!!

georgiacop50

Awesome stuff!

illini420

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!!!

epcjimi1

Hang on. Problem with these huge posts is trying to figure out what you want to say about stuff posted. I'll give it another try,

epcjimi1

@SkyMan said:

STOP PITCH.

MNVR TO P52 ATT RY 165:42

So at 49 sec, maneuver (MNVR) the pitch should be corrected to
52,, Attitude: roll 165 : Yaw 42

I'm in. Butt clencher.

crazyhounddog

Over the top again my friend!! Just an amazing collection you have bud. It's always a pleasure to view your pickups.
Way to go bud
I hope to catch up with you at a coin show soon.

coinpro76

Amazing stuff! Belongs in a museum. Thank you very much for sharing.

kaz

What a cool collection~! I always enjoy reading these posts.

robec

@coinpro76 said:
Amazing stuff! Belongs in a museum. Thank you very much for sharing.

Sy doesn't need to send them to a museum. He has set aside enough room in the east and west wings of his mansion. These items are definitely historical items.

Thanks for sharing Sy!!

OldEastside

I've been waiting for one of these post's from ya Sy..........as usual Totally Cool Stuff

Steve

ElKevvo

Good stuff as always. Thanks for the great post!

K

1630Boston

Always amazes me to think of what could be calculated and accomplished with a slide-rule and a lot of courage.

asheland

Awesome thread!