Since the late 1950s, the first projects of orbital stations began to appear in the USSR and the USA - spacecraft that would allow people to stay in near-planetary orbit for a long time and conduct research there. In the 1960s, the United States, encouraged by the successes of the Apollo space program, began serious development of large space stations, which were expected to allow the creation of a habitable scientific base on the Moon, and eventually even human flight to Mars.
The Americans' ardor was cooled by two important events.
One of them was the Vietnam War, in which the United States intervened in 1965 - it caused significant damage to the country's economy. The second was the completion of the Apollo program in 1975. The budget allocated for space research has been severely cut.
However, after the cancellation of the Apollo lunar expeditions, the Saturn 5 super-heavy rockets, the largest rockets of those years, were still available. By that time, designer Wernher von Braun had already developed a design for an orbital station, where it was proposed to use the upper stage of the Saturn-1B rocket as a living space. The station performed in two guises - first it launched itself into orbit as a rocket stage, then the vacated liquid hydrogen tank was retrofitted, and the stage turned into an orbital station. A docking station, solar panels and other equipment were provided. The more powerful Saturn 5 could launch a fully equipped station into orbit, which made the option of retrofitting a hydrogen tank unnecessary.
Skylab was built on the upper stage of the Saturn 1B rocket.
The hull was covered with thermal insulation, and the interior of the tanks was adapted for living and scientific research by a crew of three.
At the bottom of the station there was a household compartment with rooms for rest, cooking and eating, sleeping and personal hygiene. Above was the laboratory compartment where the astronauts worked. Water, food and clothing in quantities sufficient for the work of three crews of three astronauts were stored in special containers before the launch. The water was in reservoirs located at the top of the station. Food was stored in food cabinets, refrigerators and freezers, also located at the top of the station and in the resting, preparation and eating areas.
Solar panels were mounted on the outside of the station's body, which were pressed against the body during the station's launch into orbit. On the outside, the station was surrounded by a thin cylindrical aluminum screen, which, after being launched into orbit, was moved away from the surface of the station using special levers and, being at some distance from it, served to protect the body from impacts of micrometeorites and from the effects of intense solar radiation.
At the head of the station's orbital block there was an equipment compartment, an airlock chamber and a berthing compartment. The station also had a shower, where water was supplied through a hose under pressure, which was then removed using a vacuum system - otherwise the drops could damage the equipment. Just one trip to the shower consumed about 3 liters of water and took two and a half hours.
“It takes a lot longer, but then you smell good,” Paul Weitz, one of the astronauts, later shared.
It was assumed that Skylab would go into orbit on May 14, 1973, and the next day the first expedition - astronauts Charles Conrad, Paul Waitz and Joseph Kerwin - would arrive at the station.
The launch took place on time. However, after Saturn 5 put the station into orbit, problems began - in the first minute of the flight, a high-speed air pressure tore off part of the protective screen and one of the six solar panels near the station. Another panel did not open. As a result, the power generated by the batteries turned out to be much less than the calculated one, and on-board systems and scientific equipment could not function normally. Soon the temperature at the station began to rise catastrophically, reaching +38 °C inside and +80 °C outside. The ability to operate Skylab was in jeopardy.
In order to bring the station into working condition, it was decided to urgently manufacture a “protective umbrella” attached to the Skylab body on four spokes. And carry out emergency repair and restoration work. This is exactly what the first crew, launched on May 25, 1973, did for almost the entire 28 days of their stay on board. He performed several spacewalks, also uncovering a jammed solar array.
The next two expeditions were already engaged in scientific work. The second, however, also had to play the role of repairmen - Jack Lausma and Owen Garriott had to install a second heat-insulating screen and replace the gyroscopes.
The second expedition became famous for a practical joke staged by Garriott. When the crew once again contacted the control center, a woman’s voice sounded on the air: “Welcome, Houston. I haven't talked to you for so long. Bob, is that you? This is Helen, Owen's wife.
The boys had not eaten homemade food for so long that I decided to bring them something warm.
Reception... Okay, I have to go. I see the boys flying up to the command module, and I wasn't allowed to talk to you. See you later, Bob!
While those on Earth were trying to understand what was happening at the station, the astronauts laughed and explained: Garriott took a voice recorder with him, into which his wife spoke several phrases in advance. The dialogue itself was rehearsed with the operator.
Later, the same crew played a prank on the members of the third expedition: when they arrived at the station, three silent figures were waiting for them, exercising on simulators and sitting in the toilet. It turned out that the previous crew took three old overalls, filled them with all sorts of garbage, and attached “heads” to them from paper bags. Since the team had a lot of work to do, they had no time to clean up the figures for some time. Astronaut Edward Gibson later recalled:
“I felt like they were looking at me, checking everything I did, but not providing any help. Creepy."
The third expedition, consisting of rookie astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue, staged a real riot on the ship.
The two previous expeditions spent 28 and 59 days in orbit, respectively, while the new crew went there for 84 days. In addition, their missions were much more tightly scheduled than those of previous crews. In particular, a large role was assigned to medical research, so the astronauts had to perform a lot of physical exercises, running in place.
After this, the rebels turned off communications and rested all day, contemplating the Earth through the observation window. The next day they reestablished contact and continued working.
This case became indicative for psychologists - no one had previously studied the consequences of such a long stay of people in space. After this, it was decided to more carefully consider the scope of work in accordance with the psychology and stress level of the crew. NASA specialists carefully worked with the crew's requests, reducing their workload in the following weeks.
Despite numerous difficulties, Skylab expeditions carried out a huge number of biological, technical and astrophysical experiments. The most important were telescopic observations of the Sun in the X-ray and ultraviolet ranges; many flares were filmed and coronal holes were discovered. Spacewalks during the expeditions involved regularly changing the film of astronomical instruments mounted on the outside of the station.
The astronauts also observed the behavior of mice and mosquitoes in space, conducted observations of the Earth, and studied how metal melting and crystal growth occur on board the station. One of the experiments was devoted to how spiders weave webs in zero gravity. In addition, they were able to observe Comet Kohoutek.
After the third crew returned to Earth, the station was mothballed.
Its further use was supposed to be resumed when the shuttles, reusable spacecraft, began flying. With their help, NASA intended to enlarge Skylab by adding several more orbital modules to it and increase the number of research crew members to six. However, no final decision on funding was made.
Meanwhile, increased solar activity led to an increase in the density of the atmosphere at the height of Skylab's orbit, and the station's descent accelerated. Raising the station to a higher orbit was impossible, since it did not have its own engine - the orbit was raised only by the engines of the docked Apollos, in which the crews arrived at the station.
According to MCC calculations, the station was supposed to enter the atmosphere at 16:37 GMT on July 11, 1979. The station's flooding area was assumed to be a point 1,300 km south of Cape Town, South Africa. However, due to an error in the calculations and the fact that the station collapsed more slowly than expected, some of the debris fell in western Australia, south of the city of Perth.
When NASA realized that some of the debris ended up on an Australian farm owned by a family of four, US President Jim Carter himself called its owner in the middle of the night with the words: “Mr. Siler, I personally and the US government sincerely apologize to you for this incident.” . Please tell me, was no one hurt on your farm?”
"A! I’ll look at the bulls now... Apparently not, don’t worry!” the farmer replied.
By an amusing coincidence, on July 20, the Miss Universe competition was held in Perth and a large fragment of the station's shell was displayed on the stage where the contenders performed.
Now this and other fragments found in Australia are exhibited in museums. After this, the United States did not create orbital stations for several decades.
length: 24.6 m
maximum diameter: 6.6 m
Length - 24.6 m, maximum diameter - 6.6 m, weight - 77 tons, internal volume - 352.4 m³. Orbit altitude - 434-437 km (perigee-apogee), inclination - 50°.
The weight and size parameters (including useful volume) of the Skylab station were several times greater than those of the Soviet orbital stations of the DOS-Salyut and OPS-Almaz series. The American station was also the first where crews worked multiple times, and the first where there were two docking ports (although the second one was not used).
History of creation
The first projects of orbital stations began to appear in the USSR and the USA from the late 50s. One of the most common options was to convert the upper stage of the launch vehicle into a full-fledged orbital module. In particular, in 1963, the US Air Force proposed a military reconnaissance station MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) project, developed for some time, but never implemented, based on the upper stage of the Agena rocket. Around the same time, von Braun presented the concept of “Practical Applications of the Apollo Program,” which, among other things, proposed using the upper stage of the Saturn 1B rocket as the habitable volume of the orbital station. In fact, the station acted in two guises - first it launched itself into orbit as a rocket stage, then the vacated liquid hydrogen tank was retrofitted and the stage turned into an orbital module. A docking station, solar panels and other equipment were provided. The project, under the working title “Orbital Workshop,” found support from NASA management and began to be implemented.
Severe space budget cuts in the early 1970s forced NASA to reconsider its programs. The program of orbital stations also underwent a significant quantitative reduction. On the other hand, after the cancellation of the Apollo 18, -19, -20 lunar expeditions, NASA still had at its disposal a supply of super-heavy Saturn-5 rockets, which could easily launch a fully equipped orbital station, which means that the half-hearted option with the addition of a hydrogen tank became irrelevant. The final version was named “Skylab” - “Heavenly Laboratory”.
Design
Schematic cross-sectional representation of Skylab, giving an idea of the size of the station. On the left is the docked Apollo transport ship.
Launch of Skylab station by Saturn 5 launch vehicle
In-flight front view of the airlock chamber with the main docking station and the ATM bay
Sectional diagram of the internal volume
Fallen fragment
US Skylab tribute stamp 1974
Skylab was built from the upper stage body of the Saturn 1B rocket. The body was covered with thermal insulation, the interior of the tanks was adapted for life and scientific research.
In the upper part of the hull, an equipment compartment was installed, an airlock chamber with the main axial and backup side docking units with a length of 5.28 m and a diameter of 3.0 m, to which a massive compartment of astrophysical scientific instruments ATM (Apollo Telescope Mount) was attached. Once in orbit, the ATM rotated 90°, allowing access to the axial docking port.
The empty hydrogen tank of the stage forms an orbital block of the station with an internal diameter of 6.6 m, partitioned by lattice partitions into laboratory (LO) and household (DC) compartments and a height of 6 m and 2 m. The oxygen tank is used to collect waste. LO is used for conducting scientific experiments, BO is for rest, cooking and eating, sleeping and personal hygiene. Everything necessary for the activities of the three crews is on Skylab during its launch: 907 kg of food and 2722 kg of water.
The station's power supply system consists of six solar panels (SB): the main ones, deployed on the body in the form of two large wings, and four unfolding crosswise on the ATM block.
The external length of the Skylab complex with the Apollo transport ship docked to it is 36 m, weight - 91.1 tons. In the living compartments with a total volume of 352.4 m³, an artificial oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere (74% oxygen and 26% nitrogen) is maintained at a pressure of 0.35 atm and a temperature of 21-32 °C.
SkyLab had a huge internal volume, providing almost unlimited freedom of movement, for example, you could easily jump from wall to wall during gymnastics classes. The astronauts found the living conditions at the station very comfortable: in particular, there was a shower installed there. Each astronaut had a small separate compartment-cabin - a niche with a closing curtain, where there was a sleeping place and a drawer for personal belongings.
Launch of Skylab
The American OS Skylab was launched at 17:30 UTC on May 14, 1973 by the Saturn 5 rocket, and a day later the first expedition was to depart for the station on the Saturn 1B rocket, consisting of commander Charles Conrad, CM pilot Paul Weitz and a doctor Joseph Kerwin.
Skylab entered an almost circular orbit at an altitude of 435 km, the solar panels on the ATM opened, but one solar panel on the station body did not open, and the other came off. As the investigation showed, during evacuation from the station, the heat-insulating screen was torn off, which tore out one SB and jammed another. Soon the temperature at the station began to rise catastrophically, reaching 38 °C inside and 80 °C on the outside. Skylab was left without power supply and without thermal control, and its operation was almost impossible. To resolve the situation, it was decided to deliver a replacement screen to the station - a kind of “umbrella”, a panel stretched over 4 extending spokes. The “umbrella” was manufactured in the shortest possible time and already on May 25 went to the station along with the first expedition.
Expeditions to Skylab
In total, three expeditions visited the station, as planned. The main task of the expeditions was to study human adaptation to conditions of weightlessness and conduct scientific experiments. Since the launch of the station itself was designated SL-1 (Skylab-1), the three manned flights were numbers 2, 3 and 4.
Despite numerous difficulties, Skylab expeditions carried out a huge number of biological, technical and astrophysical experiments. The most important were telescopic observations of the Sun in the X-ray and ultraviolet ranges; many flares were filmed and coronal holes were discovered.
The total cost of the Skylab program was about 3 billion US dollars in prices of that time.
Further operation of the station
There were no more expeditions to the station. A 20-day flight of the SL-5 Skylab-5 was proposed for scientific experiments and some raising of the station's orbit. They discussed ways to preserve Skylab until the start of flights of the reusable Space Shuttle, and then operate it for at least 5 years. The Skylab-Shuttle program provided for one flight to significantly raise the orbit using the propulsion module delivered by the shuttle, two recovery expedition flights with the delivery of a new docking port in the first, and then regular multi-month expeditions to bring the crew at the station to six to eight people, docking a new large airlock module, other modules (including non-free-flying Spacelab laboratories) and trusses, as well as, possibly, an even larger shuttle system spent external tank being retrofitted with equipment. However, the final decision and funding were never made.
Meanwhile, increased solar activity led to a slight increase in atmospheric density at the height of Skylab's orbit, and the station's decline accelerated. Raising the station to a higher orbit was impossible, since it did not have its own engine (the orbit was raised only by the engines of the docked Apollo spacecraft, in which the crews arrived at the station). The mission control center oriented the station to enter the atmosphere at 16:37 GMT on July 11, 1979. The station's flooding area was supposed to be a point 1,300 km south of Cape Town, South Africa. However, an error in the calculations within 4% and the fact that the station collapsed more slowly than expected led to a shift in the point of impact of unburnt debris: some of it fell in Western Australia south of the city of Perth. Some of the wreckage was discovered between the towns of Esperance and Rawlinna and is now on display in museums.
Links
see also
- List of spacecraft with X-ray and gamma detectors on board
| Orbital stations | |
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| Completed | |
| Part of the ISS | |
| Canceled | |
| ¹ Not used for human space travel. ² Part of the Almaz program for military purposes. | |
| Military aircraft and spacecraft McDonnell Douglas | |
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| Fighters | |
| Stormtroopers | |
| Educational | |
| Military transport aircraft | |
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| Spaceships | |
In the early 20th century, space pioneers such as Hermann Oberth, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Hermann Noordung and Wernher von Braun dreamed of huge space stations in Earth's orbit. These scientists believed that space stations would be excellent preparation points for space exploration. You remember the “KETS Star”?
Wernher von Braun, the architect of the American space program, integrated space stations into his long-term vision of US space exploration. Accompanying von Braun's numerous articles on space topics in popular magazines, artists decorated them with drawings of space station concepts. These articles and drawings contributed to the development of public imagination and fueled interest in space exploration.
In these space station concepts, people lived and worked in outer space. Most of the stations looked like huge wheels that rotated and generated artificial gravity. Ships came and went, just like in a normal port. They carried cargo, passengers and materials from Earth. Outgoing flights were heading to Earth, the Moon, Mars and beyond. At that time, humanity did not fully understand that von Braun's vision would become a reality very soon.
The US and Russia have been developing orbital space stations since 1971. The first stations in space were the Russian Salyut, the American Skylab and the Russian Mir. And since 1998, the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Canada, Japan and other countries have built and began to develop the International Space Station (ISS) in Earth orbit. People have been living and working in space on the ISS for more than ten years.
In this article we will look at the early space station programs, their current and future uses. But first, let's take a closer look at why these space stations are needed at all.
There are many reasons to build and operate space stations, including research, industry, exploration, and even tourism. The first space stations were built to study the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body. After all, if astronauts ever fly to Mars or other planets, we first need to know how prolonged exposure to weightlessness affects people during the months of a long flight.
Space stations also provide a frontline for research that cannot be done on Earth. For example, gravity changes the way atoms organize into crystals. In zero gravity, an almost perfect crystal can form. Such crystals can become excellent semiconductors and form the basis of powerful computers. In 2016, NASA installed a laboratory on the ISS to study ultra-low temperatures in zero-gravity conditions. Another effect of gravity is that during the combustion of directed flows, it generates an unstable flame, as a result of which the study of them becomes quite difficult. In zero gravity, you can easily study stable, slow-moving flame streams. This could be useful for studying the combustion process and creating stoves that will pollute less.
High above the Earth, the space station offers unique views of Earth's weather, terrain, vegetation, oceans and atmosphere. Additionally, because space stations are higher than Earth's atmosphere, they can be used as manned observatories for space telescopes. The Earth's atmosphere will not interfere. The Hubble Space Telescope has made a lot of incredible discoveries thanks to its location.
Space stations can be adapted as space hotels. It is Virgin Galactic, which is currently actively developing space tourism, that plans to establish hotels in space. With the growth of commercial space exploration, space stations can become ports for expeditions to other planets, as well as entire cities and colonies that could relieve an overpopulated planet.
Now that we know what space stations are for, let's visit some of them. Let's start with the Salyut station - the first of the space stations.
Salyut: the first space station
Russia (and then the Soviet Union) was the first to put a space station into orbit. The Salyut-1 station entered orbit in 1971, becoming a combination of the Almaz and Soyuz space systems. The Almaz system was originally created for military purposes. The Soyuz spacecraft transported astronauts from Earth to the space station and back.
Salyut 1 was 15 meters long and consisted of three main compartments, which housed restaurants and recreation areas, food and water storage, a toilet, a control station, simulators and scientific equipment. The Soyuz 10 crew was originally supposed to live aboard Salyut 1, but their mission encountered docking problems that prevented them from entering the space station. The Soyuz-11 crew became the first to successfully settle on Salyut-1, where they lived for 24 days. However, this crew tragically died upon returning to Earth when the capsule depressurized upon re-entry. Further missions to Salyut 1 were canceled and the Soyuz spacecraft was redesigned.
After Soyuz 11, the Soviets launched another space station, Salyut 2, but it failed to reach orbit. Then there were Salyut-3-5. These launches tested the new Soyuz spacecraft and crew for long-duration missions. One of the disadvantages of these space stations was that they only had one docking port for the Soyuz spacecraft, and it could not be reused.
On September 29, 1977, the Soviet Union launched Salyut 6. This station was equipped with a second docking port so the station could be resent using the Progress unmanned vessel. Salyut 6 operated from 1977 to 1982. In 1982, the last Salyut 7 was launched. It sheltered 11 crews and operated for 800 days. The Salyut program eventually led to the development of the Mir space station, which we will talk about later. First, let's look at the first American space station, Skylab.
Skylab: America's first space station
The United States launched its first and only space station, Skylab 1, into orbit in 1973. During launch, the space station was damaged. The meteor shield and one of the station's two main solar panels were torn off, and the other solar panel did not fully deploy. For these reasons, Skylab had little electricity and internal temperatures rose to 52 degrees Celsius.
The first crew of Skylab 2 launched 10 days later to repair the slightly damaged station. The Skylab 2 crew deployed the remaining solar panel and set up an umbrella awning to cool the station. After the station was repaired, the astronauts spent 28 days in space conducting scientific and biomedical research.
Being a modified third stage of the Saturn V rocket, Skylab consisted of the following parts:
- Orbital workshop (a quarter of the crew lived and worked in it).
- Gateway module (allowing access to the outside of the station).
- Multiple docking gateway (allowed several Apollo spacecraft to dock with the station at the same time).
- Mount for the Apollo telescope (there were telescopes for observing the Sun, stars and Earth). Keep in mind that the Hubble Space Telescope had not yet been built.
- Apollo spacecraft (command and service module for transporting the crew to Earth and back).
Skylab was equipped with two additional crews. Both of these crews spent 59 and 84 days in orbit, respectively.
Skylab was not intended to be a permanent space retreat, but rather a workshop in which the United States would test the effects of long periods in space on the human body. When the third crew left the station, it was abandoned. Very soon, an intense solar flare knocked it out of orbit. The station fell into the atmosphere and burned up over Australia in 1979.
Mir station: the first permanent space station
In 1986, the Russians launched the Mir space station, which was intended to become a permanent home in space. The first crew, consisting of cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov, spent 75 days on board. Over the next 10 years, "Mir" was constantly improved and consisted of the following parts:
- Living quarters (where there were separate crew cabins, a toilet, a shower, a kitchen and a garbage compartment).
- Transitional compartment for additional station modules.
- An intermediate compartment that connected the working module to the rear docking ports.
- The fuel compartment in which fuel tanks and rocket engines were stored.
- The astrophysical module “Kvant-1”, which contained telescopes for studying galaxies, quasars and neutron stars.
- The Kvant-2 scientific module, which provided equipment for biological research, Earth observations and space walks.
- Technological module "Crystal", in which biological experiments were carried out; it was equipped with a dock to which American shuttles could dock.
- The Spectrum module was used to observe the Earth's natural resources and the Earth's atmosphere, as well as to support biological and natural science experiments.
- The Nature module contained radar and spectrometers to study the Earth's atmosphere.
- A docking module with ports for future dockings.
- The Progress supply ship was an unmanned resupply ship that brought new food and equipment from Earth, and also removed waste.
- The Soyuz spacecraft provided the main transport from Earth and back.
In 1994, in preparation for the International Space Station, NASA astronauts spent time aboard Mir. During the stay of one of the four cosmonauts, Jerry Linenger, an onboard fire broke out on the Mir station. During the stay of Michael Foale, another of the four cosmonauts, the supply ship Progress crashed into Mir.
The Russian space agency could no longer maintain Mir, so together with NASA they agreed to abandon Mir and focus on the ISS. On November 16, 2000, it was decided to send Mir to Earth. In February 2001, Mir's rocket engines slowed down the station. It entered the earth's atmosphere on March 23, 2001, burned and collapsed. The debris fell in the South Pacific near Australia. This marked the end of the first permanent space station.
International Space Station (ISS)
In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan proposed that countries unite and build a permanently inhabited space station. Reagan saw that industry and governments would support the station. To reduce the enormous costs, the United States cooperated with 14 other countries (Canada, Japan, Brazil and the European Space Agency, represented by the remaining countries). During the planning process and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States invited Russia to cooperate in 1993. The number of participating countries grew to 16. NASA took the lead in coordinating the construction of the ISS.
Assembly of the ISS in orbit began in 1998. On October 31, 2000, the first crew from Russia was launched. The three people spent nearly five months aboard the ISS, activating systems and conducting experiments.
In October 2003, China became the third space power, and since then it has been fully developing its space program, and in 2011 it launched the Tiangong-1 laboratory into orbit. Tiangong became the first module for China's future space station, which was planned to be completed by 2020. The space station can serve both civilian and military purposes.
The future of space stations
In fact, we are only at the very beginning of the development of space stations. The ISS has become a huge step forward after Salyut, Skylab and Mir, but we are still far from realizing the large space stations or colonies that science fiction writers wrote about. There is still no gravity on any of the space stations. One of the reasons for this is that we need a place where we can conduct experiments in zero gravity. Another is that we simply do not have the technology to rotate such a large structure to produce artificial gravity. In the future, artificial gravity will become mandatory for space colonies with large populations.
Another interesting idea is the location of the space station. The ISS requires periodic acceleration due to its location at . However, there are two places between the Earth and the Moon called Lagrange points L-4 and L-5. At these points, the Earth's and Moon's gravity are balanced, so the object will not be pulled by the Earth or the Moon. The orbit will be stable. The community, which calls itself the L5 Society, was formed 25 years ago and is promoting the idea of locating a space station at one of these locations. The more we learn about the workings of the ISS, the better the next space station will be, and the dreams of von Braun and Tsiolkovsky will finally become a reality.
1973 Astronaut Joseph Kerwin inspects Charles Conrad during Skylab's first manned flight.
The American orbital station Skylab was launched into orbit on May 14, 1973. According to the plans of NASA specialists, it was supposed to be in operation for almost a hundred years. However, the Americans flooded this station already in 1979. And the reason for its liquidation still remains an unsolved mystery.
Skylab turned out to be one of the most expensive United States programs in the history of space exploration. The cost of the project was about three billion dollars at the prices of that time.
Its orbital block was created on the basis of the S-4B rocket, which is the third stage of the Saturn 5 launch vehicle. The rocket's hydrogen tank was converted into a two-story room for a crew of three. On the lower floor there were utility rooms, and on the upper floor there was a research laboratory. Together with the main block of the Apollo spacecraft docked to it, the volume of the station was 330 cubic meters.
At the station, supplies of water, food and clothing were created in advance for the astronauts of the three planned expeditions. The payload weight of the station was 103 tons
The first expedition, which set off to the station on May 25, 1973, had to devote most of its time to repair work. The crew members went into outer space three times.
Having worked at the station until June 22, the astronauts undocked from the station, flew around it, and returned to Earth, having spent 28 days in space.
The second expedition departed for Skylab on July 28 and spent 59 days in orbit.
The third expedition launched on November 16, 1973 and was the longest, spending 84 days in space. And she was the last one on board the expensive station.
The third mission was also famous for the fact that the astronauts celebrated the New Year in orbit for the first time in history. Their flight lasted from November 16, 1973 to February 8, 1974. They had such a busy program of experiments that they had practically no time to rest. When the crew demanded that the program be adjusted to make it easier, Mission Control refused. And then the astronauts - Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Edward Gibson - held a one-day strike, turning off the radio and indulging in the rest guaranteed by labor law. However, by the end of the flight, the entire previously planned program was completed.
After the third crew returned to Earth, the station was mothballed. Its further use was supposed to be resumed when the shuttles, reusable spacecraft, began flying. With their help, NASA intended to enlarge Skylab by adding several more orbital modules to it and increase the number of research crew members to six. That is, to create a kind of analogue of our Mir station several years before this Soviet station was launched into orbit.
However, Skylab began to lose altitude. To save it by raising its orbit, it was necessary to send an accelerating engine to the station - the station did not have one. But it was an extremely difficult and risky operation, which was eventually abandoned. In connection with this, Skylab was given a death warrant.
In the summer of 1979, as a result of increasing solar activity, there was a slight increase in the density of the atmosphere in the station's orbit. Braking has increased. And on July 11, 1979, it entered the dense layers of the atmosphere. Skylab's deorbit was uncontrolled. Its debris scattered in the Indian Ocean and over sparsely populated areas of Australia.
1971 orbital station plan
July 1, 1973
Third mission pilot Jack R. Lousma after the vacuum shower
1973
Astronaut Owen Garriott eats food
1973
Astronaut Joseph Kerwin blows soap bubbles
1973
Astronaut Charles Conrad cuts Paul Weitz's hair
1973
Owen Garriott inside a lower body negative pressure device. What is this????
1973
Astronaut Alan Bean reads before bed
Why the first American orbital station needed an “umbrella”, why the first space strike occurred and how the Skylab station almost became the prototype of the International Space Station during the Cold War, the “History of Science” section tells.
The idea of creating a long-term station in orbit, where ships launched from Earth could dock, arose long before space flights. As a matter of fact, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s story “Outside the Earth” describes such a station. But the first station projects in both the USSR and the USA appeared before Gagarin.
However, some specifics appeared in 1963-1964, when first the American military aviation proposed the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project - a military reconnaissance orbital station based on the upper stage of the Agena rocket, and then Wernher von Braun proposed his Orbital Workshop project based on the upper stage Saturn-1B rockets. However, it came to actual design and construction at the very beginning of the 1970s.
The fact is that at that time the lunar program had already succeeded and, thanks to this, Congress... cut funds for space. Well, there is a political result, but how many missions fly to the Moon - what difference does it make? Therefore, the Apollo 18-19-20 flights to the Moon were cancelled. But as a result, a certain number of unused Saturn V rockets remained in NASA’s warehouses. Why not use the most powerful rocket to implement a long-standing idea? And there are also Apollo aircraft to fly to the station.
Launch of Skylab station on Saturn V launch vehicle
Wikimedia Commons
Like the previous project, the Skylab orbital station - “Sky Laboratory” - was built on the basis of the body of the first stage of the Saturn IB rocket. The station turned out to be massive, much larger than the Salyut that had already flown in 1971. Length - 24.6 meters, maximum diameter - 6.6 meters. The power supply, just like on the Salyut, was provided by solar panels, but these were not only two “wings”, as in all the first Soviet stations and on the Soyuz spacecraft, but also a kind of “sunflower” placed above the axis of the station together with the astrophysical instruments compartment.
The launch of the first American orbital station took place on May 14, 1973. And immediately what is commonly called the phrase “Houston, we have problems” began. In fact, according to the schedule, the first ship with a crew was supposed to launch the next day. However, the launch had to be postponed and we began to think about what to do. The fact is that after entering orbit, one of the “wings” of the solar panels did not open, and the other came off. Then it turned out that this was the “work” of the heat-insulating screen, which also came off, simultaneously demolishing one battery and jamming another.
Damaged Skylab
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As a result, the station became unbearably hot (inside - 38 degrees, on the surface - 80). I had to hastily construct an “umbrella” - an ordinary cloth that was stretched over the station on four knitting needles.
On May 25, the first crew flew (mission SL-2, SL-1 was called the launch of the station itself). This expedition turned from scientific to repair. It lasted 28 days. In July, a new crew flew (SL-3), working for 59 days in orbit (July 28 – September 25). The third and final crew worked at Skylab for a record 84 days for the United States (this record for astronauts lasted right up to the joint expeditions to the Mir station). However, at that time it was also a world record, which was broken in 1978 by Soviet cosmonauts at the Salyut-6 station.
Skylab device
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An interesting episode was associated with the last crew of Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue: the first and only space strike to date. The fact is that both Expedition SL-2 and Expedition SL-3 were staffed by experienced astronauts who were hungry for work. The crew of SL-3 especially tried. The guys worked 16 hours a day, trying to fulfill the flight program as much as possible. And in SL-4 there were newcomers, whose program was calculated based on the zeal of the “third”. Gerald Carr said: "We would never work 16 hours a day for 84 days straight on earth, and we shouldn't be expected to do that here in space." The crew completely interrupted contact with Earth for a day and began to rest. Now this case is included in all textbooks on space psychology and medicine.
But then the program ended. The rocket was out of production, there was nothing to launch new stations with. They tried to preserve the station until the start of Space Shuttle flights, there was even an idea to create a “Cold War-era ISS” - the Skylab-Salyut complex, but alas. On July 11, 1979, the station left orbit and burned up in the atmosphere. The debris fell in Australia and is still on display in museums. The United States had to wait for many years for its long-term flights.
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