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May 14, 1973: Skylab Launches (Read 349 times)
May 14th, 2006 at 3:28pm

RichieB16   Offline
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January 27, 1967
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On May 14, 1973, the United States successifully launched its space station Skylab.  The Skylab program was one of several ideas that had grown out of the Apollo moon landing program using existing technologies.  This was known as the "Apollo Applications Program."  Although there were several different programs planned to use Apollo techonology, the only one to ever occur was Skylab.

Although NASA did not beat the Russians at this feat (they launched their first station in 1971), there was no pressure on NASA to beat the Russian's in heavy lifting which is all launching a space station proves.

The launch on Skylab was the final launch of the American Saturn V rocket which had been used during the Apollo program.  The station was launched in a single launch and upon reaching orbit the solar panels unfolded.

Unfortunately, the Skylab program had serious problems from the moment the rocket lifted off the launch pad.  About one minute into the launch, the heavy virbrations from the rocket caused one of the solar panels to be ripped off of the station taking with it part of the outer hull.  This included a section that protects the cabin from a lot of the suns energy.  Although there was no breach in the hull, it did cause power shortages and made it very hot in the crew cabin.

Amazingly, a simple fix was quickly developed which involved the first crew deploying a milar cape over the section of missing hull to reflect sun energy.  The station would also be reoriented to so the remaining solar panels could be as efficient as possible.  This solved the power issues.

During its time in orbit, Skylab was manned by three crews (each containing 3 astronauts).  The USSR set endurance record of 24 days was broken by the first crew of the station and that record would eventually be pushed up to 84 days by Skylab's final crew in 1974.

Despite some later dissapointments-the station was intended to be reactivated for the shuttle program but its orbit decayed too fast and the shuttle was delayed-Skylab is considered a very succiessiful program.

In July of 1979, Skylab made an uncontrolled reentry over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia causing a temporary worldwide scare.


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You can see the milar cape in this photo as well.  Also, notice the mission solar panel to the botton left.  There should be one to match the one on the right.
 
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Reply #1 - May 14th, 2006 at 7:12pm

Scorpiоn   Offline
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Neato toledo. Smiley I love hearing of close shaves and improvisations.  Especially in space! Cheesy

PS: Didn't you get left and right mixed up on your last sentence?
 

The Devil's Advocate.&&...
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Reply #2 - May 14th, 2006 at 8:35pm

myshelf   Offline
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i think it's the right one that's there

as richie said, the left one is missing
 

the reasonable man adjusts to his souroundings, while the unreasonable man insists on adjusting his souroundings to him.&&&&therefore all progress is due to the unreasonable man.
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Reply #3 - May 14th, 2006 at 9:53pm

RichieB16   Offline
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What I ment is, there should be one on the left just like the one on the right.  The problem is, I accidently wrote "mission" instead of "missing" in the sentence.   Roll Eyes
 
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Reply #4 - May 15th, 2006 at 9:08am

myshelf   Offline
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i didn't notice that
 

the reasonable man adjusts to his souroundings, while the unreasonable man insists on adjusting his souroundings to him.&&&&therefore all progress is due to the unreasonable man.
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