FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1973
1973 - 1787.PDF
SKYLAB y'F '••'• :0 4 ^ TED WILDING-WHITE SKYLAB is ESSENTIALLY a specialised laboratory devoted to investigating certain areas of technology crucial to the development of future space stations. It is also equipped to examine potential applications of such stations. The experimental nature of the programme and the limitations of the mission prevent Skylab from ranking as a true space station. It does, however, represent about the nearest possible approach within the scope of the Apollo hardware on which it is based. Skylab was conceived even before the first manned Apollo launch took place. The idea of adapting an empty rocket stage for use as an orbital dwelling has, in fact, been in existence for a number of years, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which claims to be unable to trace the original source. A report published by McDonnell Douglas in November 1962 is considered to be the first documented suggestion for the use of a modified Saturn IVB stage. In early 1965 Nasa began planning "Apollo extension systems" which included possible adaptation of a spent S.IVB. This proposal gained strength and emerged as the Apollo Applications Pro gramme. Since first details were announced, shortly before the Apollo 8 Christmas flight round the Moon, the pro gramme has gone through several metamorphoses. It now bears only a superficial resemblance to the spacecraft originally devised as a means of capitalising on the huge investment in the Moon race. The original plan was for a two-phase operation. The first phase involved the use of a converted S.IVB stage launched by a two-stage Saturn IB and called the Saturn I Workshop. The entire mission was to have involved five S.IB launches. The Workshop was a standard S.IVB stage, normally the second stage of the S.IB and third of a Saturn V, com plete with its single J-2 engine. The on-board propulsion was necessary because the S.IB was not capable of orbiting such a payload independently. McDonnell Douglas was awarded a contract to attach solar panels and a meteoroid shield and to build a grid floor, partitions and other fittings Skylab as it should have looked is shown in this artist's impression with the Apollo CSM docked at left. A crewman is shown approaching the Apollo Telescope Mount to change films in some of the solar telescopes into the liquid hydrogen tank. Complete with a simplified airlock module and multiple docking adapter, it was to have been launched fully fuelled. The internal fittings were not expected to affect the hydrogen flow as the stage boosted itself into a 250-mile orbit. The tanks were then to have been purged and a three-man crew, launched the next day, would have fitted out the hydrogen tank area during the 28-day stay. A second crew flight was scheduled four months later for a 56-day stay and then, five-to-six months afterwards, a third crew was to go up, followed immediately by the Apollo Telescope Mount on a second S.IB. The two were to rendezvous in orbit and the ATM, based on the lunar module structure, was to be manoeuvred to an automatic dotking with the spare port in the adapter. The second phase was called the Saturn V Workshop. The use of the first two stages of the Saturn V eliminated the need for the Workshop to have its own propulsion and allowed it to be fitted out completely on the ground and to carry what continued to be called the Apollo Tele scope Mount on the same launch. In July 1969 Nasa switched priority to this single-launch laboratory, designa ted the Apollo Applications Programme Cluster, and in February 1970 renamed it Skylab. It is this, with modi fications, that is in operation today. Skylab comprises four'basic components. The main unit is the Orbital Workshop (OWS), which is the converted S.IVB stage alone and; contains crew living quarters, supplies storage and the main biomedical experiments. Attached to the forward end of this is the Airlock Module (AM), which not only contains an airlock and exit hatch for extra-vehicular activity but is also more or less the nerve centre for the entire station. The wider forward end of the unit exactly matches the Multiple Docking
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
Desktop Alerts
RSS
Events
