Word: workshopping
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Barely more than a minute after the orbiting laboratory was launched two weeks ago, ground controllers knew that Skylab was in trouble. Telemetered signals indicated that the meteoroid-and-heat-shield protecting the workshop and living quarters of the craft had been ripped away. The telemetry also seemed to confirm that one of the workshop's twin electricity-producing solar panels had sheared off, and the other had been jammed by debris from the shield...
...entire mission, the astronauts suited up again, depressurized their cabin, removed the probe assembly and attempted to make repairs. After two hours of effort they finally managed to dock successfully. On Saturday, they were to try to enter Skylab and attempt to put a sun screen over the orbital workshop's exposed skin...
While NASA engineers and flight controllers struggled desperately to save the mission, conditions aboard Skylab deteriorated and the launch of the three astronauts was delayed. First priority was given to finding a way to cool off the Orbital Workshop (other sections of the spacecraft remained at a normal 65° or 70°). Maneuvering the spacecraft with its thrusters, flight controllers in Houston turned the exposed area away from the sun. But by doing that they also changed the angle of the four working solar wings, which reduced their exposure to sunlight and dangerously lowered the production of electrical power...
After two days of experimentation, mission controllers found a compromise position for Skylab. When it was tilted so that its solar panels were at an angle of 55° to the direction of the sun's rays, adequate power was produced and the temperature in the Orbital Workshop stabilized close to a tolerable...
...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...