Word: skylab
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Others suggested inflating a balloon to shade the craft, or spray painting the affected area. Eventually, NASA seemed to be settling on a different solution: the astronauts would try to shield Skylab with a tissue-thin, aluminized sail-like sheet of Mylar, a plastic film...
...Tries. Attaching the sunshade will be even more difficult. In the first option open to the astronauts, Conrad (who practiced the delicate maneuver on simulators in Houston) will edge the command ship alongside Skylab (see diagram). As he does this, Kerwin or Weitz will lean out of the hatch and attach three newly designed clamps to the ship-two near Skylab's base, one on the telescope mount. The clamps will be used to anchor lines running to the trapezoid-shaped covering. As the lines are tightened, the shade will be pulled into its proper position like the spinnaker...
...tricky orbital repairs will not be without danger. But NASA technicians and engineers have worked overtime to prepare all the special tools, gears and awnings that will be needed. The Skylab astronauts have flown to Huntsville, where they have run repeated trials of the repair procedures in the simulated zero-G conditions of NASA'S water test tank. Indeed, the intense feeling among NASA'S rank and file reminded Astronaut John Swigert Jr. of the remarkable effort that enabled him and his Apollo 13 crew mates to bring their crippled spacecraft safely back to earth after an explosion...
Launched last month in an effort to beat the larger Skylab into orbit, Salyut 2 was to have marked the resumption of the manned Soviet space effort after an interruption of nearly two years, in time for the big Communist May Day celebrations. It was in June 1971 that three cosmonauts perished when the hatch of their Soyuz space craft failed while they were returning from a highly successful 24-day mission aboard Salyut 1. Since then, the Russians have thoroughly redesigned Soyuz and were expected to use it to ferry men to the new orbital workshop...
Pieces were torn off the 24-ton ship - including the large winglike solar panels that, like Skylab's, were vital to its electrical supply. Eventually, as many as two dozen pieces of debris were spot ted floating near the disabled craft...