Space Rocket History #405 – Skylab – What Went Wrong and How Do We Fix It?

Nasa concluded that the failure of the micrometeoroid shield 63 seconds into the flight caused the breaking of the solar array system. Furthermore, at 593 seconds into the flight the second stage retro rocket plume exhaust resulted in the ripping off of the array.

How the Shield was Torn Off

Making the Sunshade

Shade Deployment Test

3 thoughts on “Space Rocket History #405 – Skylab – What Went Wrong and How Do We Fix It?”

Forgot to mention a couple of episodes ago — you can get a shirt with the SMEAT logo from Amazon.

Here’s some good detail on the ‘Parasol’ how it was deployed. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19760012092/downloads/19760012092.pdf

Another great episode on the Skylab (of course, I’m partial, since I was fortunate enough to see Skylab as it neared completion in the VAB). I found it most interesting when you discussed the Skylab 2 Saturn 1B launching from the “milk stool” platform from the launch pad designed for the Saturn V. After all, previous Saturn 1 and 1B launches (including Apollo 7) were conducted from a purpose built launch pad, so I wonder what the advantace was to using the platform instead of the previous launch pad.

Here’s Apollo 7 on it’s launch pad: https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/S68-50712/S68-50712~orig.jpg