Skylab: The Launch Damage, Rescue and Three Crews’ Record Stays

Skylab, NASA's first space station, reached orbit on the last Saturn V launch with its meteorite shield and one solar panel already torn away, and its rescue came down to a ten-day scramble followed by a spacewalk. The station went on to host three crews, who stayed 28, 59 and 84 days.

Built from Apollo hardware

After the Apollo moon program, Wernher von Braun pushed for a permanent human presence in space. His first step was to use Apollo-era hardware to build an orbiting laboratory, Skylab. The Apollo command and service module served as the taxi. The large cylinder was a repurposed third stage of a Saturn V, with a habitable volume three times the size of a Greyhound bus. The Apollo telescope mount carried the observatory instruments. NASA planned for three crews flying 28 to 56 days.

Training relied on the neutral buoyancy simulator at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama: a 75 ft diameter tank filled to a depth of 40 ft with a million and a half gallons of water, holding full-size sections of Skylab.

Launch damage

Skylab launched after seven years of preparation. Malfunctions were indicated 1 minute and 3 seconds after liftoff. When the rocket reached maximum dynamic pressure, the meteorite shield was ripped off, exposing a section of the habitat's skin directly to the sun. Internal temperatures ranged from 170 to 190° F, and external skin temperatures between 240 and 300°. One solar panel deployed immediately and was torn off. A small strap of metal from the shield wrapped around the other wing and kept it from deploying, which saved that panel.

The first crew's launch, planned for the next day, was delayed by 10 days. Teams worked around the clock, and a parasol was created from nothing, with seamstresses sewing it. It was to be pushed out through one of Skylab's small science airlocks.

The rescue

The first crew was Pete Conrad, Dr. Joe Kerwin and a third astronaut named in the transcript as PJ Whites. After docking, they found a breathable atmosphere in a dark, hot station. Conrad deployed the parasol through the airlock, and temperatures began to fall after about two revolutions of Skylab.

To free the remaining solar wing, the astronauts went outside under the Apollo telescope mount. Kerwin used a 25 ft pole to hook cutters onto the strap. There were no handrails or foot restraints in that area. Conrad reported the strap was cut, the panels came down and power was sufficient to complete the mission. The first crew returned after a record 28 days.

The second and third crews

The second crew accomplished 150% of their mission objectives, was dubbed the super crew by a NASA press release, and spent 59 days in space.

The third crew, commander Jerry Carr, pilot Bill Pogue and science astronaut Ed Gibson, had no spaceflight experience. Pogue became sick, and the crew decided not to tell mission control, but their recordings were downloaded and heard on the ground. The New York Times reported they had been reprimanded. Work piled on, mission control scheduled tasks to the minute, and the crew began skipping rest days. One day no one answered the radio, as each thought another was on the radio. The resulting talks were called the first sensitivity training in space. The commander said they were being asked to work 84 days solid, 16 hours a day without a break. NASA then let the astronauts decide when and in what order to do the work. The crew returned after a record 84 days.

Reentry

Skylab was expected to stay up until well into the 80s, with the Space Shuttle meant to boost it, but the shuttle program was delayed and solar activity was higher than anyone anticipated. The station, over 100 ft long and weighing 77 tons, dropped from orbit. It had no retro burn, only control over its orientation, so NASA commanded it to tumble to bring it down over an ocean. An airline pilot flying near Perth, Australia, saw it for about 25 seconds. NORAD estimated impact in the southern Indian Ocean. Pieces were found, with no reports of damage or injury, and Australia fined the United States government $400 for littering.