Updated

Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 21

Conrad, Kerwin Free Skylab Solar Wing on June 7, Restoring Power After 54C Overheating

Updated

Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 21

Conrad, Kerwin Free Skylab Solar Wing on June 7, Restoring Power After 54C Overheating

Q: Had the ingenious parasol repair failed, what was NASA’s contingency plan to save its first space station?

If the parasol had failed, NASA’s backup was not to abandon Skylab immediately but to try one of two alternate sunshade repairs already being developed in parallel. Engineers had prepared three thermal-fix concepts under intense time pressure. The parasol, deployed from inside the station through a scientific airlock, was the preferred option because it was the quickest and least complex. But NASA also had contingency designs: one sunshade that astronauts could install during a spacewalk, and another that could be attached from the open hatch of the Apollo command module. Those alternatives were aimed at solving the same urgent problem the parasol addressed: replacing the lost micrometeoroid shield’s thermal protection so Skylab would stop overheating. NASA was also keeping the station alive in the meantime by carefully controlling its attitude to balance heat and power. The separate “Skylab Rescue” plan sometimes mentioned in historical accounts was a different contingency. That standby mission was designed later to bring astronauts home if their Apollo spacecraft became unsafe, not to repair the station’s missing heat shield after launch. So, had the parasol not worked, NASA’s practical fallback was another improvised sunshade installation—either by EVA or from the Apollo hatch—while continuing careful ground control of Skylab’s orientation.

1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 21

On 7 June, Pete Conrad and Joseph Kerwin cut the strap pinning Skylab’s surviving main solar wing and pulled it open, restoring enough electricity for the station’s mission to continue.
The repair followed a launch failure 63 seconds after liftoff on 14 May, when Skylab’s micrometeoroid shield tore away, taking one solar wing and exposing the workshop to roughly 52-54C heat.
NASA had delayed the first crewed launch by 10 days while engineers built a 22-by-24-foot parasol that Conrad, Paul Weitz and Kerwin deployed through an 8-inch airlock after docking on 25 May.
That improvised sunshade lowered temperatures to a habitable range within three days, but full scientific operations still depended on freeing the jammed wing and recovering power.
Skylab, America’s first space station, ultimately survived through a mix of ground-control work, emergency engineering and in-orbit repairs that were never part of the original mission plan.