Word: apollo
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Conrad's optimistic appraisal, following the flawless launch of the Skylab astronauts and their successful rendezvous with the space lab, had raised high hopes that the trouble-plagued ship could be put back in order. Thus, after Apollo docked with the orbiting laboratory and the astronauts had dinner, word was flashed to Conrad to begin the first phase of the repair operation...
Conrad undocked and maneuvered Apollo to Skylab. Wearing a bulky space suit, Weitz leaned out of Apollo's hatch (while Kerwin held onto his knee to keep him from drifting out into space) and attempted to pull the jammed panel loose with a long-handled tool resembling a boat hook. The panel would not budge. After an hour of pushing, shoving and tugging-interspersed with streams of obscenities clearly audible to millions-the task seemed hopeless. "I hate to say it," said the exasperated Weitz, "but we ain't going to do it with the tools...
Without the electrical power from the inoperative panel, Skylab would have to depend on its windmill solar panels and on Apollo's fuel cells, which would be depleted in about three weeks. That meant that many of Skylab's planned experiments would have to be curtailed...
...worst was still to come. When the disappointed astronauts moved Apollo back to the nose of Skylab to dock for a rest period, another glitch developed: Apollo's docking mechanism, which had worked the first time, suddenly balked. Several times Conrad bumped Apollo's nose into Skylab's docking adapter; each time, Apollo's docking mechanism failed to engage...
...their second option, the astronauts also carried into space a canopy rigged to a makeshift A-frame. But its deployment would require a more difficult space walk from the exit in Skylab's airlock module. As a third option, the Apollo command module carried the "Spinnaker Shade," which had been the original first choice of space officials. They had second thoughts about the sail-like canopy, because they feared that the light jet plumes from the command module's thrusters might fog the still functioning solar wings on the telescope mount. As he hung out of the open...