Skylab :: essays research papers

SkylabSkylab was Americas first experimental space station. Some of Skylabs programobjectives were To prove that valet could live and work in space for extendedperiods, and to expand our familiarity of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-basedobservations. Skylab made much expenditure of Saturn and Apollo equipment. Through theuse of a "dry" third stage of the Saturn V rocket, the station was completelymade as a workshop theatre of operations before build. Crews visited Skylab and returned toearth in the Apollo spacecraft.THE FLIGHTSSkylabs 1st unmanned mission may 14, 1973The station was launched into orbit by a Saturn V booster. Almost immediately,problems unquestionable due to vibrations during lift-off. A critical meteoroidshield ripped off taking one of the crafts two solar panels with it a piece ofthe shield cover around the other panel keeping it from deploying.Skylab was maneuvered so its Apollo Telescope get on (ATM) solar panels faced theSun to provide as mu ch electrical energy as possible. Because of the loss of themeteoroid shield, however, this positioning caused workshop temperatures to riseto 126 degrees F. The launch of Skylab 2 was postponed 10 days while NASAengineers developed procedures and trained the junto to make the workshophabitable. At the same time, engineers "rolled" Skylab to lower the temperatureof the workshop.Skylabs second manned mission - May 25th to June 22ndAstronautsCharles Conrad, Jr.capital of Minnesota J. WeitzJoseph P. KerwinThe crew meats with Skylab on the fifth orbit. After making many repairs,including deployment of sunblind sunshade which cooled the inside temperatures to75 degrees F, by June 4 the workshop was in full operation. In orbit the crewconducted solar Earth resources experiments, medical checkup studies, and five studentexperiments 404 orbits and 392 experiment hours were completed three EVAsthat come 6 hours, 20 minuets.Skylabs 3rd manned mission - July 28th to September 25th , 1973AstronautsAlan L. beanJack R. LousmaOwen K. GarriottContinued maintenance of the space station and extensive scientific and medicalexperiments. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earthexperiments three EVAs totaled 13 hours, 43 minuets.Skylabs 4th mission - November 16th, 1973 to February 8th 1974AstronautsGerald P. CarrWilliam R.