50 Years Ago: Skylab 2 Astronauts Deploy Jammed Solar Array During Spacewalk [Archive]

wiggy

11th Jun 2023, 18:01

FWIW there was a bit more to Skylab 1's problems than just :bored: the meteoroid shield being ripped off, and it turns out that event didn't in itself take one of the solar cell panels with it...

It was eventually discovered that the shield breaking up wrapped one of the panels in debris (the one the Skylab 2 crew released) and only loosened the other one slightly from it's stowed position.....that panel actually made it into orbit attached to the lab but then got ripped off by the exhaust plume from the retro rockets on the second stage when that stage was jettisoned...

Less widely reported was that debris from the shield caused the interstage or "skirt" between the First and second stage to fail to jettison shortly after staging.

That would have been a mandatory abort on the previous manned missions because of concerns of a catastrophic failure of the second stage due to elevated temperatures around the J-2 engines. Being unmanned Skylab one was allowed to press on to orbit with the interstage still in place and with the engine temperatures rising rapidly towards limits.

As the subsequent Board of Enquiry the conclusion was that not enough attention had been paid to the aerodynamics and structural characteristics of what in effect was in some ways novel (but fortunately robust) launch vehicle.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-the-launch-of-skylab-americas-first-space-station

treadigraph

13th Jun 2023, 13:33

My older brother tended to be a one for a leg pull so I didn't really believe him when he said "we can see Skylab passing overhead tonight" - up the road we went not long after dark and we did indeed see this light sailing overhead. Guess that was '73. Next man-made space object I saw was the ISS... seen a few other things since.