Word: meteoroid
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fact, Skylab's history of glitches demonstrated both the futility of taking technological shortcuts and the agility of men working in space to remedy unexpected ailments. When Skylab was launched by a Saturn 5 booster rocket on May 14, 1973, a large section of its meteoroid and heat shield ripped away, taking one of its prematurely extended solar-energy wings with it. A second wing jammed in a retracted position. The craft both overheated in orbit and was dangerously underpowered. But in the space age's first salvage mission, on May 25, 1973, Astronauts Charles ("Pete") Conrad Jr. and Joseph...
...redundant system are still working). The astronauts will carry up a replacement gyro. Already on board is a twin-pole awning. It is designed to replace the makeshift sunshade erected by the first crew to protect the orbital workshop's bare spot where it lost its thermal and meteoroid shielding...
Power Shortage. As Conrad and his crew ended their second week in space, those chances seemed dim indeed. Skylab's power shortage-which resulted from the jamming of one solar panel and the loss of another during launch, when the orbital workshop's meteoroid and thermal shielding ripped off-had suddenly been compounded by a severe new problem. Two of Skylab's 18 storage batteries had failed...
...Conrad was able to confirm what the telemetry had suggested. But after surveying the jammed solar panel and the remnants of the meteoroid shield, the skipper was reassured. "I think we can take care of it," he told relieved flight controllers in Houston. Several hours later, it appeared that NASA'S ingenious salvage operation-and indeed the entire $2.5 billion Skylab mission-might end in failure...
...attempt to free the solar panel that had been jammed by Skylab's meteoroid shield...