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Skylab 2
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Skylab 2 (also SL-2 and SLM-1) was the first manned mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station. The mission was launched on a Saturn IB rocket and carried a three-person crew to the station. The name Skylab 2 also refers to the vehicle used for that mission. The Skylab 2 mission established a record for human spaceflight duration and its crew were the first space station occupants ever to come home alive (since the Salyut 1 crew died during reentry).
ll>Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.
ched on May 25, 1973 the first Skylab crew's main job first was to repair the space station.
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Encyclopedia
Skylab 2 (also SL-2 and SLM-1) was the first manned mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station. The mission was launched on a Saturn IB rocket and carried a three-person crew to the station. The name Skylab 2 also refers to the vehicle used for that mission. The Skylab 2 mission established a record for human spaceflight duration and its crew were the first space station occupants ever to come home alive (since the Salyut 1 crew died during reentry).
Crew
Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.
Backup Crew
Support Crew
Mission parameters
- Mass: 19,979 kg
- Maximum Altitude: 440 km
- Distance: 18,536,730.9 km
- Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB
- Docked: May 26, 1973 - 21:56:00 UTC
- Undocked: June 22, 1973 - 19:48:07 UTC
- Time Docked: 26 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes, 7 seconds,
Space walks
- Weitz - EVA 1 - (stand up EVA - CM side hatch)
- EVA 1 Start: May 26, 1973, 00:40 UTC
- EVA 1 End: May 26, 01:20 UTC
- Duration: 40 minutes
- Conrad and Kerwin - EVA 2
- EVA 2 Start: June 7, 1973, 15:15 UTC
- EVA 2 End: June 7, 18:40 UTC
- Duration: 3 hours, 25 minutes
- Conrad and Weitz - EVA 3
- EVA 3 Start: June 19, 1973, 10:55 UTC
- EVA 3 End: June 19, 12:31 UTC
- Duration: 1 hour, 36 minutes
See also
Mission highlights
Launched on May 25, 1973 the first Skylab crew's main job first was to repair the space station. Skylab's meteorite and sunshield and one of its solar arrays had torn loose during launch, and the remaining primary solar array was jammed. Due to concerns that high temperatures inside the workshop — the result of no sunshield — would release toxic materials and ruin on-board film and food, the crew had to work fast.
After a failed attempt to deploy the stuck solar panel, they set up a "parasol" as a replacement sunshade. The fix worked, and temperatures inside dropped low enough that the crew could enter. Two weeks later Conrad and Kerwin conducted a space-walk, and after a struggle, were able to free the stuck solar panel and begin electricity flowing to their new "home."
For nearly a month they made further repairs to the workshop, conducted medical experiments, gathered solar and Earth science data and returned some 29,000 frames of film with a total of 392 hours of experiments. The Skylab 2 astronauts spent 28 days in space, which doubled the previous U.S. record.
The mission lasted until June 22, 1973. Skylab 2 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 9.6 km from the recovery ship, USS Ticonderoga.
The mission set the records for the longest duration manned spaceflight, greatest distance traveled and greatest mass docked in space. Conrad set the record for most time in space for an astronaut.
Mission insignia
The Skylab Expedition 1 patch was designed by Frank Kelly Freas, a well-known artist highly regarded in the science fiction field, whose name was suggested to NASA by science fiction author and editor Ben Bova. The insignia features Skylab above the earth with the sun in the background. In an article for Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine, Freas said, "Among the suggestions the astronauts had made was the idea of a solar eclipse as seen from Skylab. It soon became clear that this idea would solve several problems at once: it pointed up the solar study function of Skylab, it would give me the large circular shape of the Earth as counterpoint to the angularity of the cluster, and it would establish firmly the connection of Skylab to the Earth. In addition, it would give a chance to get the necessary high contrast for good visibility of the tiny finished patch. ... I made several studies of cloud patterns on the planet, reducing them finally to very conventionalized swirls. The Skylab cluster was simplified and simplified again, till it became simply a black form with a white edgelight to set it off."
Spacecraft location
The command module they flew to the station in is displayed at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida.
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