Word: caped
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...safe splashdown. By week's end the space agency had settled on a different course. For the time being at least, the Skylab team would be allowed to continue its record-breaking 59-day mission. As a safeguard, however, round-the-clock work was ordered at Cape Kennedy to prepare another Apollo craft for a rescue mission...
...engineers was the possibility of further deterioration in the propulsion system. The small thruster systems, as well as Apollo's big main engine at the rear of the service module, use the same type of oxidizer. What is more, the chemical had come from the same batch at Cape Kennedy. Thus, if it contained some contaminant, all of the spacecraft's engine systems might well be imperiled...
Space Walk. Shortly after the trouble was identified, Christopher C. Kraft Jr., the Johnson Space Center's director, put in a call to Cape Kennedy: How soon could a rescue vehicle be made ready for launch? He also checked with NASA headquarters in Washington about such a mission. By midmorning, after emergency meetings in Washington, Houston and the Cape, Kraft had his answers. A three-shift, 24-hour-a-day operation could get a rescue vehicle (actually the command ship originally designated to be used by the third Skylab team) ready for launch by September 10. NASA headquarters also...
...order went out to begin the preparations, the shape of the proposed rescue became clear. Cape Kennedy's Pad 39B would have to be hastily readied for another launch. The Apollo rescue ship would have to be stripped of other gear to accommodate five passengers instead of the usual three and ballasted with 1,000 lbs. of lead to compensate for the resulting shift in the center of gravity. Astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind, back-up Skylab crewmen, would pilot the craft to a rendezvous with Skylab and probably dock in an emergency port at the side...
...final decision to launch the unprecedented rescue mission will not be made until early in September. At week's end, in fact, space-agency officials were still hoping that there would be no need for it at all. For one thing, chemical tests at the Cape on samples of the oxidizer used for the Skylab mission showed that it was not contaminated and probably not responsible for the leak. Commented Kraft: "You always end up preparing yourself for the worst and you usually end up in a better position." He also sent word to the Skylab crew that they...