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| | | :: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 :: |
Also Today In History
 The first manned crew of Skylab was launched on May 25, 1973, having been delayed until 11 days after the launch of the workshop to allow time for solutions to be found to the problems which occurred during the SL-1 launch. The crew was led by Charles "Pete" Conrad, who had previously flown two successful Gemini missions and was the commander of Apollo 12, scientist-astronaut flight surgeon Joe Kerwin, and Paul Weitz - all United States Navy pilots.
It would be the job of the first crew to prove that the Skylab program of living and working in space was not only feasible, but manageable. Before that could be done, however, a more pressing task awaited them--completing the task of saving the crippled station.
When they reached Skylab, the three astronauts found that one of the workshop's solar panels was completely gone and the other was only partially deployed, held down by a strap which was a remnant of the destroyed micrometeoroid shield. The crew tried to free the panel by performing a "standup" extravehicular activity from the command module's hatch but met with a frustrating lack of success. Then they were unable to hard dock with Skylab. Without a successful docking, the crew would have to return home, abandoning Skylab as a complete failure. However, the resourceful crew tried another technique, never practiced but mentioned once in training. They suited up, depressurized the CSM once again and removed the "probe" which normally guides the CSM into the "drogue" for docking. After removal, then Conrad drove the latching mechanism straight into the drogue and 11 of the 12 latches correctly actuated! The 12th was performed manually and the Skylab repairs were ready to begin.
By the time this was accomplished, the crew had put in an arduous 22 hour day. The following day, having spent the night in the docked command module, they entered the overheated Skylab, finding it uncomfortably hot. They pushed the "parasol" through the scientific airlock and it unfurled outside the station. Almost immediately, temperatures inside the station started dropping. The internal temperatures stabilized and the astronauts began the work they had come to do.
NASA officials believed that overcoming Skylab's adversities demonstrated the benefits of having humans in space. The mission also highlighted the importance of making allowances for unforeseen problems and being prepared for in-flight troubleshooting.
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