Word: skylab
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...prime objective of the Skylab 2 mission was to test how well humans can live and work in space. But Astronauts Al Bean, Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott also had another important goal: observing the earth. Last week, as scientists began assessing the results of the record-breaking journey (during which Skylab 2 circled the earth 859 times in more than 59 days), NASA released some of the astronauts' photographic handiwork. The stunning earth pictures ranged from such geological phenomena as craters on snow-capped volcanoes to sweeping views of Hurricane Ellen to an unusual formation of swirling clouds...
Only a week after splashdown, the astronauts were already settling back into a full workaday routine in Houston. Lousma and Garriott, both physical fitness buffs, had resumed jogging. Doctors reported that all three crew members were recovering their strength at a faster pace than the first Skylab team, perhaps because of a stepped-up conditioning program...
...contrast to the astronauts, other passengers aboard Skylab did not do so well on their return to earth. The tiny minnows that were born aboard the space station died after their arrival in Houston; Arabella, the surviving spider who had quickly mastered the art of weaving her web in zero-G, was found dead in her vial by NASA doctors...
...Skylab astronauts also obtained closeup views of erupting prominences, which consist of relatively cool clouds of ionized (or charged) gases that have temperatures of only about 6,000° F., compared with typical temperatures of 2,000,000° elsewhere in the corona. Before Skylab 2, solar physicists thought the phenomenon was relatively rare. Now it has been observed about once every two weeks, followed by periods of radio interference on earth. The astronauts also made observations of so-called solar bright points; although the points were previously thought to be concentrated in the sun's active equatorial belts...
Even more data about the sun will be gathered by the Skylab 3 astronauts, who will also study Comet Kohoutek as it becomes prominent in the sky during daylight hours in December. But that will be the last manned scientific space mission planned by the U.S. Says Robert Noyes of the Harvard College Observatory: "We'll probably never again have such an opportunity in the foreseeable future...