 SKC Films Library |
| SKC Films Library >> Technology >> Astronautics >> Manned Programs and Missions |
| The Second Manned Skylab Mission SL-3 lifted off at 6:11 am CDT July 28, 1973, with crewmembers Alan L. Bean, Owen K. Garriott, and Jack R. Lousma. Three EVA sessions were undertaken during the 59-day mission. The first was a marathon 6-hour, 31-minute excursion to deploy an experiment, install solar telescope film, and augment the parasol with the twin-pole sunshade. The second lasted 4 hours 30 minutes, during which the astronauts changed film, deployed experiments, and replaced some gyros. The third EVA was a 2-hour 42-minute excursion to retrieve film and experiment samples. Owen Garriott during one of his
three EVAs The second Skylab crew not only completed all of its planned experiments, it was actually able to complete some experiments that had been scheduled for another mission. Where 26 Earth resources experiment passes had been planned, 39 were actually accomplished. Data collected during these experiments included photographs of the developing and decaying stages of tropical storm Christine, the active volcano Etna, a fishing operation in the Gulf of Mexico, and an Arizona ecological test site. 206 hours of solar viewing had been planned, but 305 were actually logged, including two major solar flares and numerous coronal transients. 333 medical experiments were conducted, six more than had been originally planned, including the first orbital demonstration of astronaut manuevering equipment. The only class of experiments that ran behind schedule were student investigations -- only 10 of the planned 12 were completed. One of the completed investigations involved two spiders -- Arabella and Anita -- that were orbited to determine their ability to spin a web without the influence of gravity. After a number of shaky starts, Arabella produced an Earth-like web of creditable symmetry. Anita adapted more quickly and spun good webs after just a few false starts. Other experiments involved substantial numbers of people from various organizations. In Skylab's Earth resources experiments alone there were some 100 American and 42 foreign academic investigators, industrial investigators, and state, federal, and foreign government agency representatives. Arabella in her web The second mission came to an end when the crew splashed down on September 25th, 59 days 11 hours and 9 minutes after lift-off, about 225 miles southwest of San Diego. SEE ALSO |
| SKC Films Library >> Technology >> Astronautics >> Manned Programs and
Missions This page was last updated on 05/27/2017. |