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Skylab Flight Summary
May 14, 1973 - February
18, 1974
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Skylab 1 |
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May 14, 1973
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Unmanned the station was launched into orbit by a Saturn V
booster. Almost immediately, technical problems developed due to
vibrations during lift-off. A critical meteoroid shield ripped off taking
one of the craft's two solar panels with it; a piece of the shield wrapped
around the other panel keeping it from deploying. Skylab was maneuvered so
its Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) solar panels faced the Sun to provide as
much electricity as possible. Because of the loss of the meteoroid shield,
however, this positioning caused workshop temperatures to rise to 52
degrees Celsius (126 degrees F). The launch of Skylab 2 was postponed
while NASA engineers, in an intensive 10-day period, developed procedures
and trained the crew to make the workshop habitable. At the same time,
engineers "rolled" Skylab to lower the temperature of the
workshop.
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Skylab 2
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May 25, 1973 - June 22, 1973
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| Charles
Conrad, Jr., Paul J. Weitz, Joseph P. Kerwin; 28 days, 50 minutes First
manned mission. The crew rendezvoused with Skylab on the fifth orbit.
After making substantial repairs, including deployment of a parasol
sunshade which cooled the inside temperatures to 23.8 degrees C (75
degrees F), by June 4 the workshop was in full operation. In orbit the
crew conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, medical
studies, and five student experiments; 404 orbits and 392 experiment hours
were completed; three EVAs totaled six hours, 20 minutes.
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Skylab 3
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July 28, 1973 - September 25, 1973
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| Alan
L. Bean, Jack R. Lousma, Owen K. Garriott; 59 days, 11 hours Continued
maintenance of the space station and extensive scientific and medical
experiments. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earth
experiments; three EVAs totaled 13 hours, 43 minutes.
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Skylab 4
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November 16, 1973 - February 8, 1974
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| Gerald
P. Carr, William R. Pogue, Edward G. Gibson; 84 days, 01 hour Last of the
Skylab missions; included observation of the Comet Kohoutek among numerous
experiments. Completed 1,214 Earth orbits and four EVAs totaling 22
hours, 13 minutes.
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