The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disaster

by Richard Russell Lawrence

  Kerwin remembers, “In the lab it was quite warm and it had a somewhat chemical smell – not bad – a sort of gasoline smell.” The temperature was 54°C, but the humidity was so low they were able keep working for up to five hours at a time.

  The next item was the thermal shield. Conrad and Weitz carefully eased the $75,000 parasol developed by Kinzler and his gang through the scientific airlock and extended the struts until the sunshield was in place. Weitz says, “On day two we went to work putting up the parasol. It took most of the day. As I remember everything went according to plan but as it turned out all the four extendible booms didn’t extend, one of them did not, so the thing was not quite a rectangle, but we didn’t know that at the time.”

  Conrad set the scene at the time. “The rod extension has gone easily enough. It’s pretty warm down here, so we are taking little heat breaks.” Almost immediately the temperature in the laboratory began to drop, eventually taking a week to stabilise at 21°C.

  Weitz adds, “The next day things had cooled down a little so we started the activation procedures which meant moving a lot of stuff. A lot of items were bolted to the triangle floor.”

  Now came the most difficult job – extending the remaining solar array. The solar panel beam was extended by a hydraulic piston. This beam was jammed by a strap from the micrometeorite shield lodged there during the launch phase. On the ground at the Marshall Space Flight Center astronauts Rusty Schweickart and Story Musgrave had developed and practiced the procedures to clear the beam on a mockup of the laboratory, complete with the strap, as seen on the television pictures sent by Conrad.

  Fourteen days after the first docking, Conrad and Kerwin tackled the procedures developed by Rusty Schweickart. Working on the smooth tank-like laboratory with no gravity, toe or handholds to steady them, the two astronauts set up the long-handled cutter, like pruning shears, used in the first attempt. They had to wait and fly through an orbital night before they could try it out.

  Kerwin recounts, “I had on my suit an extra six foot tether, just a rope, with hooks on both ends. Where we were there was an eyebolt so we hooked one end of the tether to a ring on the front of the suit, snaked it through the eyebolt and back up to the suit, hooked it again, adjusted it to the right length and I could stand up with my two feet planted one either side of that eyebolt and suddenly I was standing there as steady as you could get with a three-point suspension. Once we had accomplished that, it was only a couple of minutes work to get the jaws in place. Pete had to help me a little with depth perception to get it exactly right – he said: ‘No . . . you passed it . . . come back, dammit. . . no. . . nowback. . .’

  “So it went on and I pulled the rope just hard enough to tighten the jaws against the strap but not hard enough to cut it. That was very important, because Pete was now going to use that twenty five foot pole as a handrail. He went hand over hand down to the solar panel, trying to take care not to cut himself, and attached another rope to the cover of the solar panel.”

  Conrad hooked one end of the rope to a vent module relief hole on the beam, and the other end was secured to an antenna support truss on the solar observatory.

  Kerwin continued:

  “First we tightened the jaws the rest of the way and cut the strap of aluminium. When we did that the panel came out another few inches and stopped.”

  Conrad, inspecting the jaws, suddenly found himself tumbling out into space to be brought up with a jerk by his umbilical cord. “That shot me out into the boonies!” he chuckled. He looked back to see the solar panel was only extended about 20°.

  Kerwin adds, “We knew that would happen – that’s what they told us at Houston – that the joint is very cold, it’s frozen, you’re going to have to break the friction. That was what the second rope was for, so now we disposed of the twenty five foot pole then the two of us worked our way under the remaining rope and stood up between the rope and the lab. That exerted just enough tension on the solar panel cover to break the friction. Suddenly – I want to say there was a cracking sound but of course there wasn’t because we couldn’t hear it – but there was this sudden release of tension in the rope and we both went flying ass over tea kettle into space. We hand over handed our way down to some structure, turned around to look, and there was the solar panel fully deployed, sticking out ninety degrees, and the panels were already starting to come out.”

  At the other end of the radio link the flight controllers heard Conrad say, “Whoops, there she goes!” and within six hours the solar panel was functioning and sending 7,000 watts of power to the workshop, enough to ensure the missions could go ahead as planned.

  The Skylab mission, the whole $2.6billion project, was saved!

  The crew agreed that the best form of relaxation, 237 mi. Tles above the earth, was just looking out of the windowheir favourite music to accompany weightless exercise was from the film 2001.

  They found sleeping difficult, as astronaut Paul Weitz explained:

  ‘I tried for a day or two but I was not comfortable sleeping with what I perceived as hanging on a wall, even though it was zero G. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep. I didn’t wander that far. Each night I would take my bunk up into the upper part of the workshop and lay it out so it was towards the Command Module. Also those sleep compartments were small, and I preferred to have more space.”

  It wasn’t always easy to get to sleep. As the laboratory swung around the world from day to night each 93 minutes the skin creaked and popped with the change in temperature. If the thrusters fired during the night to keep the laboratory’s attitude, they sounded like bursts of gunfire. If anyone got up he would wake the others.

  The Skylab toilet was a hinged, contoured seat mounted on the wall – it was uncomfortable and awkward to use, but did work. The astronaut sat on the seat, fastened a belt across his lap, and used forced air drawn into a plastic bag to collect the faecal matter. The shower was a cylindrical cloth enclosure fed with water from a preheated pressurised portable bottle. With only 2,722 kilograms of water on board, bathing showers were rationed to 2.8 litres of water per shower per week. The liquid soap and water were carefully measured before the mission and rationed out – no luxurious long hot showers if you were feeling a bit seedy! Weitz was first to try the shower. “It took a fair amount longer to use than you might expect – 15 minutes of shower and 45 minutes of cleaning up – but you came out smelling good!” so it wasn’t really a success. They found it was easier to rub down with wash cloths.

  Weitz added: “Zero-G is both good and bad. It’s a great environment for moving around, to play in, and to work in, but it’s not so good when it comes to things like going to the bathroom or brushing your teeth and you like to spit the toothpaste out into the sink and watch it go down the tube, instead of having to spit it out into a used towel, or something like that. The bathroom became the barber shop every few weeks, the barbers sucking the cropped hair away with little vacuum cleaners.”

  The Skylab 3 mission was from 28 July until 25 September 1973, a duration of 59 days. The crew of Al Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma had some problems with the thrusters on their Service Module. Houston considered sending a rescue mission with a module modified to fit five astronauts, but the readings improved and the problem was not as serious as it had seemed.

  The crew enjoyed sun watching. Their watches at the solar console were the only form of privacy they had, but they could watch the sun any time they wanted. There was constant solar activity – filaments streaking up, flares, enormous bubbles forming and bursting.

  When the Skylab 4 mission arrived they found the station was already occupied – the previous mission had left three stuffed flightsuits behind! William Pogue, Edward Gibson and Gerald Carr would stay for 84 days. Gibson:

  “It was a shame to read with all that was going on outside. I would read a little when Skylab was over water, but when we reached the shore I would put the book down, and look at the continent below.

  “Carr w
ould sneak off to the Command Module, the most private place, turn the speaker off, and get some reading done that way.”

  On 21 January 1974 they made the first observation of a solar flare. The crew protested at their heavy workload and refused to work as hard as the crew of Skylab 2. Lindsay:

  On February 9, after some experiments such as erasing a computer memory and reloading it, Skylab was put in a vertical attitude with the docking hatch looking away from Earth in the hope this would prolong its life, and at 2 pm the last command was sent to switch the telemetry off. By this time the laboratory was showing signs of wear and tear. The gleaming gold, white, and silver paint on the outside was becoming tarnished, the white paint had browned and the gold had baked and blackened. Despite the initial setbacks, Skylab had met, or exceeded, every requirement placed upon it.

  Originally planned for 140 days, Skylab was manned for 171 days, 13 hours, and 14 minutes, taking the crews around the Earth 2,476times, a distance of 113,455,650 kilometres. This was a lot more than all the previous American manned spaceflights put together, which totalled 146 days, 21 hours, 36 minutes, and 8 seconds. 565 hours of Sun observations were planned, 755 were actually spent; 701 hours of medical experiments grew to 822 hours; and instead of only 60 Earth observation passes, they eventually completed 90.

  Soviets’ 20G return to Earth

  On 5 April 1975 the Soviets had to abort a mission after 261 seconds. The second stage failed to drop off due to wiring errors made during manufacture. The vehicle began rolling out of control. The cosmonauts had to separate from their booster. Cosmonaut Vasily Lazarev described the experience of their 20G return to Earth: “It ate all sound, leaving only wheezes and grunts.”

  Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov landed on the steppes of Baikonur. They spent the night in a forest until the following morning when they were picked up by a helicopter.

  The Soviet moon landing program finally ended. Chief designer Mishin was dismissed on 18 May 1974. His successor cancelled the project and scrapped the remaining boosters.

  Apollo-Soyuz shaking hands

  The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union was concluded by a joint mission – the product of improving relations between the United States and the Soviet Union which allowed the Soviets to appear to be on equal terms. It was also an experiment into the possibilities ofdeveloping an international space station. Lindsay:

  On 5 July 1975 the Soviets made their first televised launch. It wasSoyuz 19. Thiswas theirpartofthe Saturn-Apollo launch.

  Although he was 51, Deke Slayton finally got a space flight. Tom Stafford had trained with the Soviet cosmonauts on their systems and in their language. Vance Brand completed the Apollo crew. Aleksei Leonov and Valery Kubasov were the Soyuz crew. As they shot into orbit, Slayton called: “Man, I tell you, this is worth waiting 13 years for, this is a helluva lot of fun – I’ve never felt so free.”

  By 8.00 am on 17 July the two spacecraft were approaching one another. When they were 322 km apart Brand told Houston: “OK, we’ve got Soyuz in the sextant.”

  Apollo did all the maneouvring because Soyuz didn’t have enough fuel or a window. It took 388 kg to make the rendezvous and Soyuz only carried 136 kg. On their 36th orbit Apollo got to within 30 metres. “I’m approaching Soyuz,” called Stafford in Russian. Leonov rolled Soyuz around 60° to help line up the two spacecraft. “Oh please don’t forget your engine,” he called in English. Everyone appreciated the joke. “Three metres . . . one metre . . . capture . . . we have succeeded,” called Stafford. “Well done Tom, that was a good show. Apollo, Soyuz shaking hands now,” said Leonov. Lindsay:

  The Apollo was fitted with a docking adapter module. The astronauts were the first to visit. They had to equalise the pressure before they could open the hatch. They stayed together for 44 hours.

  The Apollo missions ended with drama in their final moments. As they re-entered the atmosphere, there was a loud and painful squealontheir intercom. “Theinterferencewas so loud that we had to take our masks off and yell at one another,” Stafford said. He instructed Brand to turn on the automatic landing sequence but Brand couldn’t hear. The drogue parachutes failed to appear on schedule. Brand activated them manually but the automatic attitude control system remained on. So when the capsule began swinging under the parachute the automatic attitude control system began firing the thrusters. Brand shut them down but some gas remained smoking from the thrusters. When the ventilation valve opened the gas was sucked into the cabin. (The ventilation valve equalised the air pressure). The crew began coughing and their eyes burnt and stung. When they hit the water they were still in distress. The capsule turned upside down. Stafford said, “It was touch and go. The oxygen ran out just as we got upright.”

  After a few days they had completely recovered. It was the end of an era – the reusable shuttle would take over the task of taking men into orbit.

  Chapter 4

  Retreat to Earth – Cancellations Galore

  Skylab plunges to Earth

  The plan was to keep Skylab going until the shuttles could reach it and bring it back into service, but once its batteries ran out it lacked the power to keep it in orbit and its orbit began to decay. An increase in sunspot activity warmed up the earth’s atmospher, which expanded until it reached Skylab. On 12 July 1979 the big solar panels were torn off as Skylab spun and twisted, its final throes following shortly after.

  Hamish Lindsay, a member of the NASA tracking team in Australia, described Skylab’s final throes:

  They began 111 kilometres over Ascension Island in the Atlantic when the radar station there spotted the big solar panels begin to tear off as the lifeless hulk spun and twisted out of control. “It’s now out of range of all our tracking stations,” said NASA. “The crash line is from Esperance in Western Australia to Cape York in Queensland. The chances of anybody coming to harm are minimal, but people are advised to stay indoors.”

  During Skylab’s last week in space, the Australian Federal Government set up a special Skylab Communications Centre in the Deakin Telephone Exchange in Canberra. Manned by about 12 officials from five departments, it monitored every move Skylab made over a hotline from Washington. Police and emergency services around Australia were put on alert. People all around the Earth under its flight path nervously wondered.

  In the United States all aircraft in the north-eastern and north-western areas were grounded as Skylab passed overhead for the last time. Four hundred members of the world’s media had gathered at NASA Headquarters in Washington where a statement was issued that Skylab had come down safely in the Indian Ocean, calculated from the last radar tracks.

  Some celebrations had already begun in America for the safe ending of Skylab.

  Then, quite unexpectedly, there were disjointed reports from around the desert 800 kilometres behind Perth. “There have been reports of sightings of fragments over Australia – from Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Albany and Perth,” NASA officials announced. In the middle of winding up the story on the end of Skylab the journalists at NASA headquarters in Washington were electrified into action: “Where’s Albany?” “How do you spell Kalgoorlie?” “Where’s this Perth?” and suddenly the sleepy little outback towns of Kalgoorlie, Albany, Rawlinna, and Balladonia were thrust into the world’s major newspaper and media headlines.

  Captain Bill Anderson was flying his Fokker Friendship 200 kilometres east of Perth on his final approach to Perth airport when his First Officer Jim Graham saw a blue light through his left window. Anderson recalls, “We first saw it at 12:35 local (Perth) time – we would have watched it for about 45 seconds. I had the impression it was a bubble shape. As it descended it changed from a bright blue to an almost orange-red and you could see the breakup start to occur. It finished up as a very bright orange ball in the front, and the remainder behind giving off sparks. It was a very long tail, perhaps several hundred miles long.”

  Bradley Smith, an employee at Perth’s Bickley Observatory, described his sight
ing. “We first saw it as a light behind the clouds. It was travelling from south to east about 90 above the horizon. If you can imagine a train on fire with bits of burning fire all the way down the carriages that’s what it was like.”

  John Seiler, managing the remote sheep and cattle station of Noondoonia 850 kilometres east of Perth saw the final moments of Skylab with his wife Elizabeth. “I was watching for it – and saw it coming straight for us. It was an incredible sight – hundreds of shining lights dropping all around the homestead. They were white as they headed for us, but as they began dropping the pieces turned a dull red.

  “The horses on the property ran mad. They galloped all over the place, and the dogs were barking. We couldn’t calm them down. Then we could hear the noise of wind in the air as bigger pieces passed over us – all the time there was a tremendous sonic boom – it must have lasted about a minute. Just after the last pieces dropped out of sight, the whole house shook three times. It must have been the biggest pieces crashing down. Afterwards there was a burning smell like burnt earth.”

  NASA officially revised its re-entry bulletin to: “Skylab re-entered the atmosphere at altitude of 10 kilometres at 2:37 a.m. (Eastern Australian time) at 31.80 S and 124.40 E – just above the tiny Nullarbor Plain town of Balladonia.” Burning pieces of Skylab were scattered over an area 64 kilometres wide by 3,860 kilometres along the flight path.