Debris from the torn shield jammed one of the arrays, preventing it from opening, and a plume from a retrorocket used to separate the Saturn V’s second stage from Skylab impinged on the second array, in its slightly open configuration, tearing it completely off the station. The loss of the shield partially deployed the workshop’s two large solar arrays. During the ascent, aerodynamic forces caused the micrometeoroid and thermal shield to tear away from the outside of the workshop, leaving the station unprotected from the Sun’s intense rays upon reaching orbit. The Skylab space station launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 14, 1973, and within 63 seconds the entire program appeared doomed. Right: The Skylab space station as seen by the Skylab 4 crew. Although none of the last crew members had prior spaceflight experience, all had served in backup or support roles for Apollo Moon landing missions. The third crew consisted of commander Carr, science pilot Gibson, and pilot Pogue. Bean commanded the second crew, with first-time flyers Owen K. Weitz, both making their first spaceflights. Gemini and Apollo veteran Charles “Pete” Conrad commanded the first crew, joined by science pilot and physician Joseph P. NASA selected nine astronauts as the prime crews to live and work aboard Skylab. The Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) contained instruments to observe the Sun and other celestial objects, while instruments looking down at the home planet comprised the Earth Resources Experiment Package. A series of experiments investigated the responses of the astronauts’ physiologic systems to the effects of long-duration weightlessness. Investigations in physics, materials processing, and student-designed experiments rounded out Skylab’s research portfolio. First and foremost, Skylab was intended as a research platform in low-Earth orbit, focusing primarily on studying human adaptation to long-duration spaceflight, observing the Sun, and monitoring the Earth. To build Skylab, engineers converted a Saturn rocket upper stage into an orbital workshop designed to house three successive crews of three astronauts for periods of 28, 56, and 56 days. The Skylab Program emerged from the Apollo Applications Program of the mid-1960s that sought to use hardware from the Apollo Moon landing program to develop America’s first space station. Showing the launch of the workshop, left, and the three successive three-man crews. Left: Illustration of Skylab in orbit from 1972. They exceeded preflight plans in terms of scientific accomplishments during their record-setting 84-day mission. The astronauts and ground controllers resolved crew scheduling issues during an inflight operations conference, dramatically improving the crew’s effectiveness and performance. After a thorough review of the available evidence, it is clear that no strike or mutiny took place during the Skylab 4 mission. Pogue, it seems appropriate to revisit the origins of the story and determine its validity. On the 47th anniversary of the launch of the Skylab 4 crew of Gerald P. An urban legend tells the story of how, dissatisfied with the micromanagement of their daily timelines, the Skylab-4 crew staged a strike, some called it a mutiny, by turning off the space station’s radio, taking the day off, and doing whatever they pleased.
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