Word: skylab
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...when the first hint of trouble came. Watching his instrument console, an engineer on duty in Mission Control noticed an unusual temperature drop in the fuel system of one of the clusters of little steering rockets on the Apollo command and service modules (CSM) that had carried the second Skylab crew to their orbital home on July 28 and is needed to ferry them back to earth. About fifteen minutes later, the astronauts themselves became aware of the problem when an alarm went off aboard the space station, jolting them out of their sleep. Later, as they looked...
...cause of the symptoms: a line from the tank containing the oxidizer necessary to fire the thrusters had apparently sprung a leak. That mishap-coupled with the earlier loss of oxidizer from a unit in one of the other four-nozzle clusters when a valve jammed during rendezvous with Skylab-left the ferry craft with part of its attitude control system not working. For several nerve-racking hours last week, NASA officials contemplated bringing the second crew of Skylab astronauts home immediately, lest any further deterioration in the Apollo rocket control system jeopardize their chances of a safe splashdown...
...Skylab's most recent problem came only a day or so after Bean and Space Rookies Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott had finally overcome a bad case of motion sickness brought on by their exposure to zero G. During the initial stages of their mission, the crewmen-especially Lousma, who vomited several times-were barely able to perform routine housekeeping and experimental chores. But their "stomach awareness," as NASA euphemistically called it, was quickly overshadowed by the oxidizer leak...
...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 approved the cost: at least an extra...
Although the U.S. Skylab space station has overshadowed recent Russian manned space ventures, the Soviet Union is pressing ahead as strongly as ever in unmanned exploration of the cosmos. Last week the Russians took advantage of the current favorable position of the earth and Mars-an alignment that occurs only once every two years-to launch two more unmanned spacecraft toward the Red Planet. Dubbed Mars 4 and 5, the ships should reach the vicinity of the earth's nearest planetary neighbor, now some 42 million miles away, in about six months...