New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Kim Wed Sep 01, 2021 5:35 am

I really enjoy this guy's videos, and he has now covered a space mission that I always thought was cool, but seemed to get shoved to the dark corners of history.

Turns out, there were many useful and future-usable things learned from Skylab, both with its onboard zero-g experiments AND the repair work needed just to make it habitable after a damaging launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680S6UbCT_w

Yabby Wed Sep 01, 2021 3:37 pm

Thanks for posting Kim! i was a young yabby through the early spaceshot period and enthusiastically watched and read everything related to space at the time. Watched them walk on the moon at home, mum wouldnt let me go to school that day as she said she didnt trust the school to make sure I saw it happen on Tv. Cool mum. :-)

Skylab never got its deserved recognition as it came at a time when people had seen man make successful missions to walk on the moon and the public had even started to become disinterested in that. To many Skylab seemed like a big can just doing laps around the earth. But incredibly important science and engineering was performed and developed not just on and in Skylab but all the systems related to design, launch, operation, survival systems, life support, maintaining it in space,...... Simple things like the planning and scheduling for Logisitics. Soo much medical stuff learnt. They just forgot the disposal part of a complete system design and lifecycle. lol!

Amazing mission, but still not the same to me as going to the moon or somewhere, landing and getting back. I hope I live long enough to see us leave orbit again!! We have been in orbit far too long now, but I guess thats money and also risk profile, marketing, media management,........ Maybe all the semi-private teams will get us back out of orbit. They are making incredible advances again!

I think the cold war drove the moon race, the post cold war to the not quite as cold war has seen laps around the earth as that has a LOT of military benefits. Possibly? Lol. :-)

My favorite Space quote is attributed to John Glen 'I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.’ I believe he actually said that, but there is much debate about when and where he was when he said it. Still I must say it is a VERY poignant observation he made. Lol. :-)

I love that period of space, I could and can ramble on about it for hours!!!! :-) Still enjoy space, but not quite the same, guess its age and memories. Lol.

Yabby

FlipStart Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:19 pm

That was a great time for me as well. We went over to my grandparents house to watch the first moon landing, they had a big 25" color TV. RCA I think.

I'm kind of kicking myself in the but again here. I had been given a folder of stuff by a guy at Kraft Systems, he had been to Cape Canaveral for something and he got this stuff while there. The folder had pictures and patches (the kind you would sew in a jacket or hat) It was a lit of the space mission stuff. I think there was a patch for each of the Skylab missions. I tried to donate the space stuff to the art center where I worked last and they said oh no, you half to keep this stuff, but we would like to put it on display at the next showing in the gallery. So one of the guys made a great board to put the patches and some of the pictures on and it was on display for about 3 months, which is how often they change the gallery exhibits.

I'm sure I still have a picture of it here somewhere though.

Oldenginerod Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:33 am

I remember the news reports predicting that we might get in the way of Skylab as it crashed to earth, but don't recall any particular concern or panic. Aus is a big place. Lots of room out there in the boondocks. What's the chances?

Rod.

Kim Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:59 am

Oldenginerod wrote:I remember the news reports predicting that we might get in the way of Skylab as it crashed to earth, but don't recall any particular concern or panic. Aus is a big place. Lots of room out there in the boondocks. What's the chances?

Rod.

There was a lot of humor about the whole thing here, and one guy was selling T-shirts as "protection" from getting hit. The shirt had a bullseye and caption saying something like, "Skylab Target". The inference was a slur against NASA for the delayed progress on the Space Shuttle, and their apparent inability to control Skylab's reentry of the atmosphere, as "What are the chances of a government agency actually hitting a target?"!

Wish I'd ordered one!

**Cribbs74** Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:01 am

First heard this song in 1985 at Summer Camp.

Kim Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:14 am

Cribbs74 wrote:First heard this song in 1985 at Summer Camp.

For some reason...this REALLY made me think of this::: Very Happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V83JR2IoI8k

Yabby Thu Sep 02, 2021 5:48 pm

Oldenginerod wrote:I remember the news reports predicting that we might get in the way of Skylab as it crashed to earth, but don't recall any particular concern or panic. Aus is a big place. Lots of room out there in the boondocks. What's the chances?

Rod.

Hey Rod, I seem to recall that most uncontrolled de-orbits seem to crash into Oz. lol!

yes it is a very big place without lots of population. :-) Gets me though at the size of the whole world!! (earth :-) ) whats the odds of an uncontrolled de-orbit crashing into Oz so often. HaHaHa. If I remember correctly even the Soviets had the problem with crashing into Oz. Im sure if I understood orbital mechanics better it would make sense and I could remove my tinfoil hat. The covid mask and tinfoil hat together make quite a fashion statement Lol.

So much good stuff about that period of the space race.!! Another of my favorites is Apollo 8 doing laps of the mmon

"
Unplanned manual realignment

Later, Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do some navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view various stars by using the computer keyboard. However, he accidentally erased some of the computer's memory, which caused the inertial measurement unit (IMU) to contain data indicating that the module was in the same relative orientation it had been in before lift-off; the IMU then fired the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude.[79]

Once the crew realized why the computer had changed the module's attitude, they realized that they would have to reenter data to tell the computer the module's actual orientation. It took Lovell ten minutes to figure out the right numbers, using the thrusters to get the stars Rigel and Sirius aligned,[80] and another 15 minutes to enter the corrected data into the computer.[47] Sixteen months later, during the Apollo 13 mission, Lovell would have to perform a similar manual realignment under more critical conditions after the module's IMU had to be turned off to conserve energy.[8
" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8

And I remember listening to Lovell on the radio live at a large family gathering reading from the book of Genesis, and after we were all talking about could they re-enter earths atmosphere safely and the burns required to leave lunar orbit and head back to earth and then to re-enter earth and how if anything went wrong.............. Man, what that mob did with such low levels of technology is insane!!!! Believe me. I work in aerospace currently and am in awe of what they did!! The guts and risks!!. Maybe sometimes the keep it simple approach was a good thing!!??? But still, I reckon mucking around with your guidance computer and such unplanned cos you want a better look at things whilst doing laps is pretty crazy. lol!

Yabby

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New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)

Re: New (to me) Facts About 1970's "Skylab"...(Other than Dropping Space Junk on Rod's Home Turf!)