Highways Into Space: A first-hand account of the beginnings of the human space program (42 page)

There was an investigation board on the cause of the failure of the meteoroid shield. The design was such that the shield was supposed to fit very tightly against the external wall of the tank and stay that way through launch. However, it did have some gaps that were apparently measured preflight. This allowed the air rushing by the vehicle to build pressure under the meteoroid shield and blew it off the vehicle. As a result, part of it wrapped around the solar arrays and just broke the latches on the other solar array 2, which was now gone. The meteoroid shield was large and fairly limp, so it was not able to be rigged to the specifications.

In March of 1969, the Administrator, Tom Paine, had supported an open program with private communications limited to special medical situations or operational emergencies. If held, a summary of any private communications would be provided to the press. John Donnelly, Chief of PAO, opposed routine medical conference on a private loop. In March 1973, the current administrator Jim Fletcher allowed routine medical conferences on a private line and the flight surgeon would release a bulletin describing the same to the press. They also approved private communications “in matters of extreme emergencies.” They could be initiated by the crew or the ground and would be paraphrased for the press. Late on May twenty-eighth, Conrad asked for a private conference; he was asked if this was an emergency.

“It’s not any emergency right now,” replied Conrad. Bill Schneider, who was the program director at NASA Headquarters, approved the request.

The conference was planned for May twenty-ninth and it widened the rift between OMSF and PAO. Conrad apologized for the difficulties with the ergometer, which was used for astronaut exercise and in one of the medical experiments. Conrad also brought up the solar array deployment, the docking probe and workshop temperatures. When the news media got the summary, the immediate question was, “Where is the emergency?” As a result of this event, Capcoms were instructed to be sure to ask if an emergency exists before any other private communications. There was another way to communicate by voice from the astronauts to the ground. There was an onboard voice recorder running all of the time and it had the nondescript name of “Channel B.” In February, well before the flight at a press conference, Conrad told the press that they would receive transcripts of Channel B recordings.

Donnelly and Myers agreed to release all Channel B data, but exclude comments specifically on the medical experiments. The flight surgeon wanted to do this because the experiments involved other doctors who sponsored them and their comments would be solely directed at the content of the medical experiments. Low backed the doctors’ exclusions also. In discussing this with the crew, Conrad felt he was left in the dark sometimes about upcoming plans for flight events. For example, he learned about the EVA plans to free the solar panel during a birthday greeting from his wife. These restrictions really had an effect on the last Skylab mission, causing a real communication block between crew and ground. When operators start to bias their communications or to use an alternative communications like Channel B, it disrupts the normal open conversations between the astronauts and the ground. I recall that something like this happened on Apollo XV, and it could have caused an even larger problem.

When it came to physical exercise by the crew, the doctors at first wanted control of all physical exercise before and during the mission; that did not play well. And for Skylab, it was decided to leave to the astronauts the choice of how much P.E. to do. There was a metabolic experiment M171, and it had a prescribed routine. It was very difficult for the crew to perform the routine with the equipment that they had onboard. For example, both Weitz and Kerwin did not finish the exercise. Conrad did, but he complained that it was like a maximum workload for twenty minutes.

Joe Kerwin at the Skylab 500

During week two, the astronauts were able to use the ergometer in an unorthodox way, so that the doctors wanted another M171 test before the EVA. The crew was surprised at this and requested a private conference. Conrad felt that they were in excellent health and they wanted to exercise. When he ran M171 protocol in a different way he finished without difficulty. It was observed that the first three days were very hectic and the workload ended up being fatiguing. They had a holiday for most of June first, and it was on that day that crew conducted what they called the “Skylab 500.” This involved the crewman running on lockers in the workshop, in what was a free running sprint around the outer circumference of the free volume of the workshop.

Because of my location in the MER and because some of my time was back in the office, I missed all of the background on the dispute over the use of the air-ground loop and the problem with full disclosure to the media. This was being handled by the on-console team, as it should be. And most of it was in face-to-face discussions between the principals and not on the Flight Director loop. And it was not my issue to resolve as the spacecraft program manager. It did resurface in ASTP.

The crew of Skylab 2 returned after twenty-eight productive days in Skylab. Most significantly, the Skylab was recovered from imminent failure and stabilized. Plans, equipment and procedures were being readied to replace the parasol material with more capability to endure the longer-term effects of the solar environment. The twenty-eight days was a new U.S. record but it would be surpassed on the last two flights.

The crew of the second mission to Skylab included Alan Bean (also backup to Stafford on ASTP), Jack Lousma and Owen Garriot. Because of early concerns about the recovery of Skylab, the launch had been moved up by three weeks. My station for the launch period was at KSC for the FRR, about two weeks before scheduled takeoff, and back at KSC for several days as the launch countdown begins. July twenty-eighth was the liftoff, and the ride up was nominal. Once on orbit, quad B developed a leak and the quad was shut down. It was confirmed by seeing particles out the window. There are four quads on the service module outer surface each with four thrusters. They are located ninety degrees apart. The spacecraft can be flown with two good quads and mission rules allowed continuation with one quad out of service. This was the first time in Apollo that we had an RCS leak.

Alan Bean on Astronaut Maneuvering Unit

The World in Jack Lousma’s Visor

Very quickly on orbit, Lousma developed motion sickness, with nausea. An onboard medication was taken and did some good. But, the condition returned for Lousma and, by dinnertime, all three were feeling the effects. Things did not improve on the next day and it was bad enough that the crew asked for a break and some bunk time. This crew also found what many others did – they did fine on the planned activities but when they had to find something or troubleshoot an unexpected problem, it took a surprisingly long time. By the third day, they were getting better and were back on the activation. Getting behind with the sickness and dealing with unexpected trouble-shooting had started a ripple effect of not eating or sleeping right. The crew worked at getting their routine back in sync.

Skylab was a different animal than most of our previous experience in human space flight. For the first time, the primary objective of the flight team was to deliver a certain amount of experiment time and associated data to the Principal Investigators for the solar science, the life sciences and the new field of remote measurement of earth resources. These were the major science areas that Skylab was designed to serve. The Apollo lunar surface science was the closest analog but it was a short time out of the entire mission duration. This objective was viewed as a contract to provide a certain level of service to the science community and it dominated the operation.

Just as the work was returning to normal, quad D leaked and we were concerned that there might be a generic problem in the two leaky quads that would show up in the other quads soon. Simulator runs showed that the two remaining good quads would be adequate for a deorbit. Engineering analysis lead us to conclude that it was not a systemic condition. The records from the loading confirmed that there was no contaminated oxidizer. We still believed that it was likely that the two leaky quads could be used for deorbit, if necessary. The rescue capability of CSM 119 gave us the confidence that we still had another potential solution. And it gave us the time to fully understand what our remaining capabilities were with the two quad problems. From my vantage point in the MER, I was impressed at how much info on the leaks could be derived by the team, which was lead very effectively by Henry Pohl of Engineering.

Events proceeded at a fast pace. The EVA crew of Lousma and Garriott deployed a larger shade, made of longer lasting material and into a position over the parasol. The temperature inside dropped. This step left the crew mostly free to do their science work with the solar telescopes, earth resource observations, medical measurement and occasionally being a plumber or an electrician to keep the Skylab humming.

After the difficulties of a slow start, the crew seemed to exult in gaining on the planned timeline and logging more productive science time. The result exceeded the science contract and a new record of fifty-nine days duration was posted.

NASA’s public reaction to the highly productive performance of the second crew was certainly to give them just praise, but it also raised the standard for the upcoming third visit to Skylab by Gerry Carr, Ed Gibson and Bill Pogue. And the content of the flight was increased accordingly. A newly discovered comet by the astronomer Lobas Kohoutek made its appearance in March 1973, eight months before Skylab 4. The best observation opportunity for Skylab would occur as it swung around the sun in December. So this assignment and its new maneuvering requirements were added to the flight. The man hours per day target for experiment time was raised to twenty-eight man hours, about a ten percent increase. The ATM program added twelve new joint observing programs. Ten to fourteen earth resources passes were added to the presently planned twenty. The new medical measurements were added. In almost three months of flight coming up, there will be more unplanned equipment repairs. In fairness to all, optimistic planning was the NASA MO. Aim high and you should get more results that you otherwise would. Another wild card was the matter of motion sickness and whether it would afflict this crew.