skylab 2

font size="+1">Skylab 2
olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Mission Insignia
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olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Mission Statistics
b>Mission Name:	Skylab II
b>Call Sign:	Skylab 2
b>Number of Crew:	3
b>Launch:	May 25, 1973 13:00:00 UTC Kennedy Space Center LC 39B
b>Apogee:	438 km
b>Perigee:	428 km
b>Period:	93.2 min
b>Inclination:	50 deg
b>Station visit length:	26d 21h 52min 7s
b>Station EVA length:	6h 20min
b>Landing:	June 22, 1973 13:49:48 UTC
b>Duration:	28 days 0 h 49 min 49 s
b>Number of Orbits:	404
b>Distance Traveled:	~11,500,000 mi (~18,500,000 km)
b>Mass:	CSM 19,979 kg
olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Crew Picture
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olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Skylab 2 Crew

Skylab 2 or SL-2 was the first human spaceflight mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station. The mission was launched on a Saturn IB rocket. The name also refers to the vehicle used for that mission. Skylab 2 established a record for human spaceflight duration. (Skylab 2 was sometimes called Skylab 1, but this name properly refers to the unmanned launch of the space station itself.)

Crew

Pete Conrad (4), commander
Paul Weitz (1), pilot
Joseph Kerwin (1), science pilot

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

Backup Crew

Support Crew

Mission Parameters

Mass: 19,979 kg
Maximum Altitude: 440 km
Distance: 18,536,730.9 km
Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB

Perigee: 428 km
Apogee: 438 km
Inclination: 50
Period: 93.2 min

Docked: May 26, 1973 - 21:56:00 UTC
Undocked: June 22, 1973 - 19:48:07 UTC
Time Docked: 26 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes, 7 seconds,

Space walks

Weitz - EVA 1 - (stand up EVA - CM side hatch)
EVA 1 Start: May 26, 1973, 00:40 UTC
EVA 1 End: May 26, 01:20 UTC
Duration: 40 minutes

Conrad and Kerwin - EVA 2
EVA 2 Start: June 7, 1973, 15:15 UTC
EVA 2 End: June 7, 18:40 UTC
Duration: 3 hours, 25 minutes

Conrad and Weitz - EVA 3
EVA 3 Start: June 19, 1973, 10:55 UTC
EVA 3 End: June 19, 12:31 UTC
Duration: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Mission Highlights

  first crew to visit the Skylab space station started their mission with home repairs. Skylab's meteorite and sunshield had torn loose during launch, and one of its two remaining solar panels was jammed. Due to concerns that high temperatures inside the workshop- the result of no sunshield-would release toxic materials and ruin on-board film and food, the crew had to work fast. After a failed attempt to deploy the stuck solar panel, they set up a "parasol" as a replacement sunshade. The "fix" worked, and temperatures inside dropped low enough that the crew could enter. Two weeks later Conrad and Kerwin conducted a space-walk, and after a struggle, were able to free the stuck solar panel and begin electricity flowing to their new "home." For nearly a month they made further repairs to the workshop, conducted medical experiments, gathered solar and Earth science data and returned some 29,000 frames of film. The Skylab 2 astronauts spent 28 days in space, which doubled the previous U.S. record.

On May 25, 1973, a crew was sent to the facility for maintenance and refit aboard an Apollo capsule. This mission used the command/service module only and not the Apollo lander. During the mission three EVA were conducted including the deployment of a sunshade to replace one torn off during launch of the station. In orbit the crew conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, medical studies, and five student experiments; 392 hours of experiments were completed. The mission lasted until June 22, 1973. Skylab 2 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 9.6 km from the recovery ship, USS Ticonderoga. The mission set the records for the longest duration manned spacelight, greatest distance travelled, greatest mass docked in space and Conrad set the record for most time in space for an astronaut.