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SKYLAB NEWS CENTER

Houston, Texas
i--

Skylab III- Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 23, 1973
4:54 pm CDT

Participants:

Nell B. Hutchinson, Flight Director


David Garrett, PAO

PC-66

/
SL-III PC66A/I
Time: 16:54 CDT
8/24/73

PAO Okay, we're going to get started with


today's change of shift briefing. We have with us the
offgoing Flight Director, Nell Hutchinson. Nell.
HUTCHINSON Okay, well, today we had what I would -
at least is one of the more successful days that I personally
have had. We sort of culminated several months of frustration
today with this gyroscope system. The EVA has got to be
termed an unqualified success. We did everything we intended
to do; no more, no less and everything worked exactly as
planned. The crew did a - another one - sterling Job out-
side the vehicle working slow and steadily. And we didn't
have any problems of any significance. In fact, we didn't
have any problems at all really. We got the new rate gyro
slx-pack installed. It's already been - of course, it was
turned on before they got back in. As a matter of fact,
it looked so good after we turned it on that we put it
in control before the crew had come back in from the EVA.
And we are now flying on 6 new rate gyros with 3 old rate
gyros as the third gyro in each axis; and it looks great.
The comment - one of the comments one of the fellows had
after we got it all hooked up and running was the last time
we had three axis redundance man - - redundancy management
on any gyros was on day 160, 76 days. We got the ramp latches
off on the two doors without any problem. We got the sail
samples out and got all the film retrieved and all the new
film out. And we were out about 4-1/2 hours total EVA time.
And there were no anomalies today in the EVA gear with any
of the procedures we used. Everything went pretty much
by the book. It was a satisfying day. I think a lot of -
awful lot of people that did an awful lot of work on this
gyro pack, the guys that thought it up and the guys that
built it in Huntsville and the people that worked up the
procedures and expecially the crew for doing such a great
Job putting it in. They all deserve a big star on their
chart. That's about all I got. It's a very, very, good
day, Tomorrow we're back to business as normal with 7 hours
of ATM work, and a major medical and on and on.
PAO Any questions? Werner.
QUERY You have the hatch close time, please?
PAO I can get it for you - -
HUTCHINSON I - well, let's see we have - Yeah, I'm
trying to figure it out. That's about right. It was 4 hours
and 30 minutes and 40 seconds was the total EVA time. You
want to get them the exact number hatch open and hatch
closed?
PAO Yeab.
SL-III PC66A/2
Time: 16:54 CDT
8/24/73

HUTCHINSON Okay.
PAO Bruce.
QUERY Nell, I was a little puzzled by some of
the comments about - I guess maybe AI was just overly
concerned about their drift and not getting back to solar
inertial right away or something, and I really didn't under-
stand all that back and forth play. The ground kept telling
them everything was fine and he kept thinking things were
messed up. What was the real hassel there?
HUTCHINSON Well, I wouldn't call it a hassel,
Bruce. I think that AI has been a little concerned all along
about having an open loop attitude control situation. And
of course, we were only open loop for about 7 minutes. Total -
that's the total time that we had the plug disconnected when
we were on a nominal H-cage with no rate inputs. About
7 minutes, 7-1/2 maybe at the outside. I don't think it
was any hassel. We were Just keeping him informed of how
far his attitude was getting off of solar inertial, and
of course, as you know it didn't get off. We ended up
getting off about 7-1/2 degrees in pitch and a couple of
degrees in - couple degrees in roll, vehicle long X roll.
And that was not far enough to have to do anything but when
we got the gyros hooked up we Just threw the switch in
solar inertial and back they went.

END OF TAPE

f
SL-III PC-66B/I
Time: 16:54 CDT
8124/73

HUTCHINSON - - far enough to ha_e to do anything,


but when we got the gyros hooked up we Just threw the
switch to solar inertial and back they went. And the Sun
sensors took us back. You know that we had done quite a
bit of talking before the fact about what to do if we got
out of attitude for a long period of time or got extensively
out of attitude, so we wouldn't get ourselves messed up,
electrical power-wise. And we had even had some conversation
this morning on that subject, so I think he maybe he might
have been - wanted Just to make sure he knew where he was.
QUERY What about the breakdown of time usage dur-
ing the EVA? It took 4-i/2 I guess, what was it flight-
planned at 4? And - but, within the EVA itself, how would
you break it down? Did they take less time than necessary
for the gyros, or
HUTCHINSON No, we took - we took what I would con-
sider to be Just about the prescribed time. They did Just
exactly what they said they were going to do. They got
the hatch open about when they wanted to, we went out and
went on the little reconoiter, which you sort of have to
charge against the rate gyro. Although it - well, you have
to charge it against rate gyros, I guess. Then we went
back in and during the night's pass they got the sail sample
deployed, got all the film stuff set up on the booms down
at the work station, and got the rate gyro pack all ready to
go. And I'd say the rate gyro pack, as far as the connectors
and everything, was just about right on the money. I mean,
he almost to the the amount of time it took them in the
water tank. Maybe they were a little faster than the tank
on the actual connections. So, I'd say the time split was
probably Just about as we planned it. I think they took a
little more time on the S149 retrieval. They were real care-
ful with that thing closing it up. And Owen did - a couple
of times up at the Sun end, when we were doing camera check-
outs and one time after we did the ramp latch removal, there
was a little delay while we were understanding what went on
with the talkbacks. And I'm not sure we still understand
that. There was a little - I don't think there were any
problems with the doors. That's my own personal opinion at
this time. We haven't looked at all the data yet, but there
was a lot of conversation back and forth between the crewmen
about what was going on between A1 and Owen when he was
modulating doors, checking out the cameras after the film
was loaded and especially after we took those ramp latches
off, which happened to have occurred over site. And as you
know, at one point, the ground reenabled one of the motors
SL-III PC-66B/2
Time: 16:54 CDT
8/24/73

and closed one of the doors to get the taklbacks on the


ground and in the air and everything agreeing right. And
you know, we've seen problems before where the microswltches
on those doors don't get made so the doors really shut, but
talkback says it isn't. Or the door's - the TM says it's
half open and half closed, and it's really all the way
open or closed. And I suspect we'll find that these were
similar-type problems and not problems with the doors.
QUERY Which one of the crewmen's liquid cooling
garment had the small leak?
HUTCHINSON Al's.
QUERY Was it Al's? And I didn't realize you
took spares of the LCGs along and all that.
HUTCHINSON Oh, yes, spare everything. Spare
umbilical, the PCU, and the whole works.
QUERY Did Jack comment in any way how difficult
or how easy it was to unplug and plug the cable in and to
drag it along, et cetera?
HUTCHINSON Yes, as a matter of fact, he did, Warner.
Let's see, the one comment that I remember him distinctly
saying was that the plug's all - everything came off fairly
easy when he was putting the one at the trunnion plate -
the big one at the trunnion plate back ons he had to re-
adjust his - the way he had himself tethered or wedged in
there because he - everytime he got it into the slot and
then went to turn it, it kept slipping out of the slot.
It wasn't really a problem of force, breaking the force.
I heard no comments at all other than it was maybe a - I
don't even remember him ever commenting about taking things
off other than they didn't have any problems with it. So,
I have to assume that the forces were about what was ex-
pected there.
PAO Any other questions? Then fine, thank
you. I'd llke to remind you that we do have a medical
criteria briefing at - -

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Medical Criteria Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 24, 1973
5:25 pm CDT

Participants:

Dr. Charles A. Berry, NASA Director of Life Sciences, NASA HDQS.


David Garrett, PAO

PC-67
SL-III PC-67A/I
Time: 17:28 CDT
8/24/73

PAO All right we're ready to get started with


our Medical Briefing. We have with us today, Dr. Charles
A. Berry, NASA Director of Life Sciences. Dr. Berry.
DR. BERRY I really wanted to have this session
to try and give you some understanding of some of the thoughts
that have been going through our minds as we looked ahead
at trying to plan this, decision at the 28-day point and
each seven days thereafter, and tell you some of the reasons
why that happened, some of the factors involved in that
decision and how we plan to go about it. And I'm delighted
to see an old friend, Vernon Butler setting down here, anyway.
And I hope there are a lot of other people listening on
here, because if there aren't, it's certainly a waste of
time for everybody involved. Mr. Donnally. So, first. We
had findings at the end of the Skylab-2 mission, some findings
during the mission and particularly the findings that lasted
for better than 21 days following the mission, involving
the cardiovascular system, that caused us some cause and
reason for us to look at our data very very carefully in the
postflight period. Now you've heard, I'm sure, much of that
information. And I don't intend to rehash that here, at the
moment. I would say, that in summary at the end of Skylab-2
flight, our position was roughly as follows: We had three
individuals who had flown that mission, all of whom had
shown that their cardiovascular systems certainly were
withstanding the stresses of zero g flight as we knew them
to that point in time, through a 28-day mission. We had
nobody who decompensated during that 28 days of mission - of
flight time. And still, we did have two people who showed
different reactions than the commander. And they had - We
did cut back upon the amount of negative pressure that we
used as a stress to the cardiovascular system in flight, as
you remember. Now following that flight however, in contrast
to what we had seen in previous missions, not of such long
duration, but certainly in previous missions in the entire
Apollo series. We saw three individuals, including the
commander now, who, while he had not had anything in flight,
did have cardiovascular findings, which lasted for some
21 days postflight. And that left us with the impression
that we are indeed seeing a cardiovascular system which
takes longer to adapt itself back to one g. It appears to
adapt itself to the zero g state. It also showed itself to
be a system which gave evidence in the postflight situation
that it did not have the same amount of cardiac output. We
were seeing reductions in cardiac output, the amount of
blood that was ejected from the heart over a minute period
SL-III PC-67A/2
Time: 17:28 CDT
8/24/73

and even in stroke volume. We were seeing evidence then,


of a cardiovascular system going uphill to try and readapt
itself to the ground. In addition to that, we also had
another finding that was in common with that, involving our
electrolytes and involving some of the hormonal controls.
They told us that well, it looks as if some of this is
hormonal and neural mechanism and that's probably what's going
here. It's a readaptive type mechanism. We have seen reduc-
tions in heart size, however, as you all know. And this was
confirmed again. And this led us to the question of well, what
is the situation here_ do we have a position where we are
indeed seeing something intrinsic to the heart itself that's
happening or are these all Just neural and hormonal mechanisms
that are making these adjustments? Or is there something in
the heart muscle itself that's causing this? Well, as a
result of that, in combining with it the findings that we had
seen in the vestibular system and involving the red blood cell
mass. We decided that it was worthwhilej sharin E this infor-
mation with some of the people that we knew had worked in the
field, particularly involving lower body negative pressure.
Now, let me quickly say, what we had seen as far as red cell
mass is concerned. We did see red blood cell masses which were
reduced some 15 percent postflight on these crewmen, all
three crewmen for Skylab-2. These red blood cell masses were
still at that same level. They'd shown, if anything, a slight
decrease, but probably within the noise level of the measure-
ment itself by the time - -

END OT TAPE
SL-III PC-67B/I
Time: 17:25 CDT
8/24/73

BERRY - - these red blood cell masses were still


at that same level. They'd shown, if anything, a slight
decrease, but probably within the noise level of the measure-
ment itself, by the time 14 days postflight. They were not
examined again then because the crew was awake and they were not
examined until we went out and got samples from them while
they were on leave, because we were concerned that we had
not seen any increase, any evidence, that the bone marrow
was responding to this decrease, and therefore, we wanted
to go back and make sure that, indeed, a response had occur-
red. As a result of that, we obtained blood from two of the
crewmen, Commander Conrad, and from Paul Weitz, and we found
that there was an increase back toward the normal limit while
their normal preflight baselines, although they were not
completely back to that at that time, some 42 days post-
flight. And that appears to be some effect upon the bone
marrow and its ability - it Just doesn't seem to be respond-
ing to that kind of a loss, which normally it would do, well
within that time period. Normally within a four-day period
after such a stress. The other vestibular thing was interest-
ing because we didn't see any vestibular finding inflight,
as you know, the vestibular findings, in this instance, were
postflight, and we did see postflight that we had some re-
adapted mechanisms as far as this crew was concerned. Their
nervous system was trying to tell them that they were back
in a one g environment and they had to re-adapt. It's sort
of llke getting your sea legs again after you've been on a
boat for a long time. And this is a complicated mechanism,
but we know that you have to change the set of the central
nervous system, particularly involving a portion of the
brain called the reticular substance. And these impulses
go into that portion of the brain from the semicircular
canals and the otolith, the two parts of the inner ear that
help us to maintain our positional sense, and as they do
this, they have to adjust themselves to those signals to
interpret them properly. We found, interesting enough, no
evidence of that producing motion sickness in the crew, who
flew Skylab-ll. Now, as you all know, in Skylab-lll, we've
had the reverse of that and we've had three crewmen who
showed that initially upon getting in to the space environ-
ment, where they went into this larger volume, and they did
it early, and they are three individuals who happen to fit
the pattern where they do react to that. And while their
central nervous systems were achieving this new set and
adapting, they did develop motion sickness, as you know s and
it lasted for several days, up through four days, at least,
and during that time period, then, they adapted, returned to
SL-III PC-67B/2
Time: 17:25 CDT
8124173

this new set. Now, they're going to have to readapt when


they come back to the Earth, and we're probably going to
see the same kind of a situation as we saw postflight from
Skylab-ll, equally as long, I'm sure, in trying to re-
adapt. So the point that I want to leave with yon then,
is that we saw changes particularly Involving the cardio-
vascular system, and we did in this instance, put the blood
in it. We think we understand the problems pretty well
as far as the cardiovascular system is concerned, and they're
very fascinating to us and followed a lot of our predictions.
The red blood cell mass one did not follow our predictions
and we had not expected it with our atmosphere, because
it's a mixed atmosphere, and we didn't expect to see red
cell mass loss on this flight. The vestibular problem
fell pretty much in what one might be able to predict, al-
though it is a very variable thing and we had not seen it
happen, as you know, postflight, except in one other pre-
vious instance, on Apollo 15. Now, we then asked a group
of people that included Dr. John Shepherd, from the Mayo
Clinic, and Dr. Shields Warren, from Boston, who is the
Chairman of NASA Life Sciences Committee, Dr. Eugene Braun-
wald, from Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Dr. Dean
Mason, from University of California, and Davis School of
Medicine, Dr. Herbert Hultgren, from the VA Hospital Medical
Service in Palo Alto, California, Dr. Kenneth Hyatt, from
the US Public Health Service in San Francisco, Dr. Theodore
Cooper, the Director of the National Heart and Lung Instit-
ute at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. John Hoche,
the Naval Aerospace Medical Center at Pensacola, Dr. Barry
Brenner, from the Veterans Hospital in San Francisco, and
Dr. Scott Swisher, from Michigan State University Medical
School. And I chaired that group and we spent a day back
on the 13th of August, going through all of our data and
tell

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC67C/I
Time: 17:25 CDT
8/24/73

BERRY ... and we spent a day back on the


13th of August going through all of our - of our data and
telling them our ideas and sharing ideas with these people.
It was a very fruitful discussion and it left us with a -
a very good feeling about what we were doing, and a very
exciting feeling that we are in an area where we're seeing
a lot of data that are of great interest and will be a
great interest to us as we plan spaceflights in the future
because they're setting the these data will set the base
for what man is able to do on flights in the future. And
we're trying to get at what is really happening here. Now
we tried to look at what we felt about the lower body negative
pressure and the ergometry results. We tried to discuss
with them our feelings about cardiac arrhythmias. And we
discussed the use of counter measuresp what sort of counter
measures, what do we know about counter measures, what should
we or might we use. And we then also considered the fact
that was our data that we felt we needed from animal flights,
or animal analogs of any sorts that might be done on missions
llke the shuttle missions in the future. And so, those are
the kinds of things we discussed, and we feel that we have
a good understanding of those areas. We feel that we're
ready to - to go - to go ahead, and we're ready to - to
brief the Administrator that I felt in a position that after
reviewing the data here at the Center with Principle Investi-
gators on the 20th and the 21st, I felt in a position to
recommend that we continue to go on in the flight at this
point and time. And we're ready, as you know, and will go
on for another 7 day period when we will review the data
and make a decision again next Thursday about going on for
another week. The data that we're particularly looking at
in this accessment are the data that pertain to the function
of the cardiovascular system. One of them looks at the
cardiovascular system as a whole in function with the muscles
and the lungs, and that's the ergometry and then the lower
body negative pressure which particularly looks at the function
of the cardiovascular system itself just as a single system.
Now it's hard to single out any system in the body and say
you're only testing that single system, but that's as close
as you can come with that kind of testing at any rate as
a particular stressed test. So, those are the principle
data. Now, we also are going to look at inflight hemoglobin.
It's very important to understand, however, that we cannot
with the - with the simple inflight hemoglobin because we
do not know for sure what plasma volumes are, what the
fluid volume portion of the blood is inflight. And therefore

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SL-III PC67C/2
Time: 17:25 CDT
8/24/73

single hemoglobin determinations done in flight without


that information can only be used in trend data. They would
be important to us if we see a continuing decreasing trend
in hemoglobin. We would expect to see some decrease in
hemoglobin, we fully expect that, and we'll Just watch that
as a trend as we go along. And as you know, we have asked
the crew to do inflight hemoglobins for us. So, I think
with that I'II stop and see if there are any questions that
we have.
PAO Werner.
QUERY With the SL-III crew being out twice
as long as the SL-II crew, you expect a greater than 15 percent
loss in red blood cell mass?
BERRY That's a very good question_ Warner, and
we considered that at some length and there are a lot of
theories. One could say, well it might - you might expect
it to double. We don't really know that. I wish it would
be easier to answer your question if we were sure what the
mechanism is here. We have discussed it at great length and
I think that we all have come to the conclusion at the moment
that while we don't know the mechanism most of the people
both inside and outside, I think now feel that it probably
is a physiological adaptive break of some kind that has been
put on the bone marrow. And we have a tendency to feel that
if it were to go at the same rate that we that there's
going to be some some give to that - that the signal is
going to change and we're not going to see that level continue
to decrease so that it will be twice as much. Now some people
feel that. However, even if it did increase twice as much
if it got down to the 30 percent level that would be an
acceptable thing. It would certainly be in the level that
we would call anemia, but it would certainly be an exceptable
level to - for us to have happen from a mission of this
duration. And so I think I can't really totally answer your
question. I - there are many people who feel that -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-67D/I
Time: 17:25 CDT
8/24/73

DR. BERRY for this to have happened from a


mission of this duration. And so, I think, I can't really totally
answer your question. There are many people who feel, I
guess the bulk of the people feel it would not go to the
30-percent level. And we're Just going to have to wait
and see.
QUERY If I understand - understood you correctly,
you said that the SL-2 crew is not yet back to the preflight
level. Now what does this _mply medically if they stay i0 or
5 or whatever percent below?
DR. BERRY There's really not that much. There's
about a somewhere, a 3 to - 3 percent, around a 3 to 3-1/2 per-
cent, something in that area - error in the method. And
Weitz is Just barely over that. He's running around four -
he was about 4 percent down, and Conrad was down about
8 percent, which says that now Commander Kerwln was away in
the mountains during that time, and he is Just being run.
And so, we do not have his data at the present time. I
would expect with additional stimulus of the altitude that
he might - that might have been more stimulus to bring him
back. It's - It'll be hard to see. I don't think it has
any medical significance as far as you know, would we do
anything, would we give them something to build blood or
something. The answer is no. It isn't low enough that we
would do that. If they have proper nuetrlents, adequate
iron available in the diet in order to make back those red
cells, and the important thing is, are they making back red
cells? And the answer to that is, at the moment, obviously,
yes. Now they were not for a period of time. And I can't
tell you how long that period of time was. It was at least
14 days. And it was somewhere between 14 and 42 days. I
can't tell you exactly what that period is.
QUERY On the vestibular disturbances, do you
expect stronger and/or longer disturbances with the SL-3
crew, as compared to SL-2?
DR. BERRY I wouldn't be surprised to see some - I
wouldn't be surprised to see all three of them have responses
as much as Kerwln experienced. I don't think you could have
much stronger responses than his. Although, it's very hard
to ferret that out, because you know in addition to that,
he had a couple of motion environments involved there. He
had a motion environment of the sea. So he added seasickness
superimposed upon what was a readaptatlon of vertigo response.
So, I think we will see a readaptation of vertigo. I hope
that we're going to be able to prevent the development of
the sea sickness in any of the crewmen so that that won't
be a party to it. So I don't expect - I hope we don't see
nausea and vomiting at all in any of them.
SL-III PC-67D/2
Time: 17:25 CDT
8/24/73

QUERY And on SL-4, would you recommend, if you


were asked a - for a 60-day mission, would you recommend this?
Or a 66-day, rather?
DR. BERRY From what I know, at the present time?
I don't know of anything at the present time, Verner, that
would cause me to not, you know, I see nothing at the moment
that would tell me not to do that. I would not recommend
that, however, without seeing the re - the end of this flight
and seeing the data. I certainly would want to do it on
that basis as to what we see. Because, while I think, the
tests are valuable to us in determining response in flight
and they look very good, so far, in flight, as we're going
along now. They don't look any worse, certainly, than what
we've seen with a 28-day flight, and perhaps a little bit
better. Although, we changed some tactics a little bit and
it's hard to say they're better. I think they're probably
about the same as the people from the 28-day flight. I still
would like to see that data, before I would say let's go
to 66
days, or some other number.
QUERY SL-4 is tentatively scheduled for
launch for November 9th, if would be rescheduled to a date
very shortly after SL-3 recovery, would you object to that,
or would you go along with it?
DR. BERRY Well, I would certainly llke to have
additional time, if it meant that we were going to lose the
- following mission, I would have no objections to launching
that crew, with the understanding that you still had the
capability, obviously, to call that mission short. I mean
you could call it if you found data that told you that you
would not want to expose the crew. I think the odds of that
are very sllm, quite honestly. I think the odds of finding
that kind of data are very sllm. I also, hope the odds of
launching that early are sllm too. Because I'd llke to see
us have the time to look at the data. And lld llke to see
us also get out to the time that we can get the comet.
PAO Any more questions? Thank you.
SPEAKER Thank you.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 26, 1973
4:15 pm CDT

Participants:

Milt Windier, Flight Director


Ed Medal, PAO

PC-69

SL-III PC69A/I
Time: 16:16 CDT
8/26/73

PAO Okay, we're ready to start today's change-


of-shift briefing. We have Milt Windler, off-going Flight
Director, so we'll - go ahead Milt.
WINDLER Okay, well today was a day off of course
which they spent most of it doing ATM work and catching up
on odds and ends and Owen did some work on his science kit.
And the - we did a battery test which didn't really follow
our expectations. The AM battery worked out very well, it
came out just about nominal for in the preliminary data we have
of course it's going to take us a while to get it, the complete
data retrieved. The two ATM batteries that we checked were -
didn't work out as we expected but in the sense
they came out around 12 or so amp hours as they did before
instead of exhibiting this rebound characteristic you might
say. So, apparently the rebound part of it doesn't exist and
I - the best we can tell now all the batteries are in the order
of 12, 13 amp hours, which means we have to decide why that is
and the best way we can use the batteries in the future. And
we have done some preliminary work and are continuing to do it
on what this means to the earth resources and right we think
we'll be okay for the rest of Skylab-3, assuming that we can
continue to take 6 amp hours out of the battery - out of each
of the ATM batteries and dependent somewhat on managinK the
activities that precede that revolution EREP revolution.
So that we don't have any real heavy power users there to drop
the batteries below a - to a low initial level_ so we have
them fully charged when we start out. Tomorrow we're going to
do a 509 run which will be - really be a extra run and pick up
on the medical and the ATM activities and proceed on. Today
I think they were supposed to deploy to switch (chuckle) spiders
and I didn't hear from the crew whether they did that yet or
not probably it means that they didn't yet. And that's about
what I have. And in a few minutes it's going to be a science
conference that we'll all want to listen to.
PAO Okay, let's open up with questions if you
have any.
QUERY What does the present battery situation
mean then in terms of SL-4 could it prompt and early launch
of SL-4?
WINDLER I'd hestitate to say anything about that
because of course we're very much interested in the comet which
is the thing that made the SL-4 launch 4 launch where it is now.
And we'd very very reluctant to give that up and we've got a
lot more work to do on the batteries before we can come up as
well as thinking about an alternate activities that we discussed
yesterday. So I really wouldn't be able to tell you much about
how that would affect 4.
QUERY Milt, (garble) now in order to find out what
it really is what caused that?
SL-III PC69A/2
Time: 16:16 CDT
8/26/73

WINDLER Yes, it is and the simulations do have their


limitations. I think that the - for example the simulations
indicated that the batteries that exhibited these weak charac-
teristics back in the early part of Skylab-2, when they got
cool and when they got a change to more less rest and just
have a regular charger - discharge cycle that wasn't very deep
they would recover and become as good as the ones the original
ones were suppose to be. And that happened as best as we can
tell that's probably you know that part of the simulation
indicated the correct trend. Now another simulation indicated
that the deep discharge followed by another discharge later on
results in an additional capacity. That did not happen so you
can see right there here's a simulation that worked out
and another one that didn't so they are and or continuing to
do charge/discharge cycles on the batteries simulating the
mission environment but they're just not able to completely
simulate all of their activities going on there, obviously
or we'd have you know a little bit better correlation.
QUERY Milt, this test today does that indicate
that it's just the ATM batteries that have lost the 40 percent
and the OWS batteries have not? Is that correct?
WINDLER That's correct and we're going to try
another - when you say OWS you mean airlock module. Yes, we're
going to try another one of those tomorrow and but not planning
on doing anymore ATM batteries and oh, in a real simplified
state you asked me yesterday what was the reason for this
happening and of course I can't give you a much better answer
than I could yesterday. I think I indicated to you yesterday
that the solar arrays are putting out the right amount of power
they're still doing all that's being asked of them -

END OF TAPE

i--
SL III PC-69B/I
Time: 16:16 CDT
8/26/73

WINDLER - the solar arrays are putting out the


right amount of power. They're still doing all that's being
asked of them. The philosophical difference in the way the
battery charge is determined in the AM batteries they
pretty well - the charging system looks at how much they
think has been taken out of the batteries and they charge
back that much plus a little bit extra. And ATM batteries,
did I say that right, that was the AM batteries, the airlock
batteries, the ones that are good, they are always being
overcharged slightly. Now, the ATM batteries have a sensor
or sensing device in them that is based on the theory that
when the battery is fully charged, it starts producing a
small amount of oxygen and is a partial pressure oxygen
sensor in there are three of them, and whenever one of these
senses a certain quanity of oxygen indicating that the battery
is fully charged it turns off, so you only need then, the
lowest set or lowest threshold sensor, then to turn that
battery off. And perhaps that tendency to kind of not quite
get fully charged each time, as opposed to the airlock module
batteries, which tend to get overfull, making them, maybe that's
an answer now. There's going to be a lot of theories on it,
and that's just one. But there is a slight difference in
the philosophy of charge there, and there may be some degrada-
tion in the sensor that determines the charge state of the
ATM battery and it may be just actually cutting off a little
bit early each time. Just a small amount. Who knows yet?
QUERY With the AM battery being able to recharge
fully, then we really haven't lost 40 percent for the whole
vehicle, in recharge capabilities. 40 percent in the one
system and you still got the AM system, it appears to be
healthy. Is that correct?
WINDLER Yes. That's right. And your correct
in saying that we haven't lost 40 percent of the whole
capability. That's right. Of course, we're not using all
of it either, right now. Even when we're doing EREP passes,
we're not using all of it. However as the batteries continue
through Skylab IV, we'll have to use more and more of our
percent.
QUERY About these sensors, let me get this
quite clear. If the sensor finds out that one of the batteries
produces oxygen, does it turn off the charging of that one
battery only? Or of all them?
WINDLER Right. Only that one battery. Each
battery is a separate system in itself you might say. But
there are, with each battery, there are three sensors and
the first one that gets to the threshold level, turns the
charger off. It's not a two out of three vote or anything
like that.
SL III PC-69B/2
TIME: 16:16 CUT
8/25/73

QUERY Is there some way to bypass or defeat or


this sensor.
WINDLER Well, I was going tn say nn, there isn't,
but on the other hand, I'd have said there was no way of
putting another set of rate gyros on the vehicle either.
Right now, we don't know of anyway to do it. l'm sure that
probably somebody at Marshall is looking at doing that. It's
certainly not obvious. We don't think there is any way of
doing it. Getting around that.
QUERY In the ATM batteries, you only tested
5 or 6. Is that 6 out of 18 or 17?
WINDLER Yeah, 6 out of the 17.
QUERY Do you plan to test all of them or can
you -
WINDLER I don't think so. I don't really believe
there's any need. They're Just so close to being, I mean
it's amazing to me that they're all right there at 12 and
13 amp hours and I find that to be very repetitive, and I
don't really see that there's any point in doing any more,
unless we can come up with some good reason for doing more,
right now, we don't plan on doing it.
PAO Okay_ we've got one mnre question there.
QUERY Well, when you said ynu think you're
going to be able to handle the EREP for the rest of SL III,
you mean, passes of the same length or cutting each pass
shorter, but still taking as much data by using - having
a few more passes?
WINDLER No, we're thinking in terms of the
original concept. We're looking at 120 and 140 degree
passes and we think we can probably do those, assumin_ that
we can keep going and getting 6 amp hours out of each battery,
as I indicated to you yesterday. So that's-
QUERY Do you have reason to believe the
batteries will stop degrading. I mean, are they going to
continue -
WINDLER No, I don't have any reason to think
that. Of course, you know, some of the theories that we
had before the launch have not proved out, but supposedly
there would be a sort of even gradual degration of the
batteries throughout the Skylah mission. Total Skylab
mission. So I see no reason to think that they're not
going to keep going down. Now, the rate at which they -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-69C/I
Time: 16:16 CDT
8/26/73

WINDLER - gradual degradation of the batteries


throughout the Skylab mission total Skylab mission. So,
I see no reason to think that they're not going to keep
going down. Now the rate at which they go down is bound
to be subject to a lot of discussion by battery experts.
You don't know - since we had all this stress on them at
the beginning, you know, that may have, proportionally
speaking, that may have taken a little bit more, so the
slope may not be - you may not be able to start off from
day I and go to day whatever we are now and draw a straight
line through them, but I would certainly have to believe
that they're going to continue to gradually go down.
QUERY _here would this put us for the last Skylab
then? At this curve?
WINDLER Well, I haven't run it out because I guess
I'm not a battery expert, and try not to preempt their deci-
sion. And I know that we've already had debates about what
the usable amount in the batteries, how low you can go. And
that's certainly not a not agreed to amongst all the tech-
nical folks, so I really can't give you an answer to that.
That's obviously one of the questions that we've got to
come in grips with pretty soon_ now. One of the answers.
PAO Any other questions? Okay, thank you,
gentlemen.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston _ Texas

Dedication of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center


Johnson Space Center
August 27, 1973
3:06 pm CDT

Participants:

Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., Director, Lyndon B. Johnson


Space Center
The Right Reverend J. Milton Richardson, Episcopal Bishop
of the Diocese of Texas
Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., NASA Astronaut
The Honorable Dolph Brlscoe, Governor of the State of
Texas
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator
Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson

SD-I
SD-I/I
Time: 3:06 CDT; 15:06 GMT
,_ 8/27/73

KRAFT Be seated, please.


KRAFT Mrs. Johnson and family, members of Congress,
distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Speaking for
all of us here in the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-
istration, I'm pleased to welcome you here today to partici-
pate in the formal dedication of the Johnson Space Center.
Today is the birth date of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th
President of the United States. And it is certainly fitting
and proper that we are gathered here to honor this great
American. We, ourselves, are also honored, since this center
bears his name, as an attribute to him and the heritage he
left for all of us. It's been just a few months since the
legislation was enacted, designating this center, in honor
of our late President. The new name is so appropriate,
however, that it seems now that we've always been known as
the Johnson Space Center. It is my fervent hope that the
legacies of Lyndon Johnson, will become even greater in the
future as a result of what we do here. I now womld like
to recognize the Right Reverend J. Milton Richardson,
Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Texas, to give the invoca-
tion. Bishop Richardson.
RICHARDSON Let us pray. Oh, Eternal God, the Creator
and Preserver of all mankind, with fervent prayer and solemn
silence, we give Thee hearty thanks for the siBnificance of
this occasion for this space center that we dedicate today
and for the missions that have explored Thy wonders for the
good of all mankind. We thank Thee Oh God for this institu-
tion, for its honored past, its dynamic presence, and its
promising future, especially with high praise and hearty
thanks, we remember before Thee Thy servant Lyndon Baines
Johnson. We thank Thee for his unwavering faith, his high
vision, and his courageous labor for the space program.
As we gather to dedicate this place in his memory, we pray
Thee to grant him Thy peace and a place of honor in Thy
kingdom. We bless and praise Thee for all that was good
and fine in his life, commemorated today and we pray Thee
that having opened to him the gates of larger life, Thou
will receive him more and more into Thy joyful service.
And so in the faith of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, we dedicate
this space center to the glory of God, the henefit of man,
and in memory of his servant, Lyndon Eaines Johnson. And
under Thee O Lord be ascribed as is most justly due all
might and majesty, dominion and power, world without end,
Amen.
KRAFT I'd like to now call on astronaut Alan B.
Shepard, Jr., the first American in space and one of the
12 men to walk on the Moon to lead us in the Pledge of
Allegiance. Admiral Shepard.

f
SD-I/2
Time: 3:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

SHEPARD I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United


States of America, and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. Would you be seated please.
KRAFT I'd like to introduce the distinguished
guests here on the stage. First, the members of the Johnson
family, Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robb,
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Nugent and Lyn Nugent; Governor of the
State of Texas, the Honorable Dolph Briscoe; the Senior
United States Senator from Texas, the Honorable John Tower;
the United States Senator from Utah and Chairman of the
Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, the
Honorable Frank E. Moss; United States Representative from
the 6th District of Texas and Chairman of the House Committee
on Science and Astronautics, the Honorable Olen E. Tigg;
the former Administrator of NASA during the Kennedy and
Johnson Administrations whose spirit and leadership were a
driving force in the growth of the Agency and man's conquest
of the Moon, the Honorable James Webb; the present Administrator
of NASA who's carrying on in the same tradition in the second
decade of the Space Age, the Honorable James C. Fletcher;
the Deputy Administrator of NASA, a member of the alumni
here at the Johnson Space Center and now serves ably in
helping to direct the agency's new course, Dr. George Lowe;
a former Director of this Center, known to all of us affec-
--" tionately as the Father of Manned Space Flight, who now
serves as NASA's Director of Key Personnel and Development,
Dr. Robert R. Gilruth. I'd like to also reintroduce the
two gentlemen you've already met, Bishop Richardson and
Admiral Shepard. Now I'ii ask the Governor of Texas, Dolph
Briscoe to come forward. Governor Briscoe.
BRISCOE Mrs. Johnson, members of the Johnson family,
members of Congress, distinguished guests, all, it is my
privilege as Governor of Texas to welcome you to these
ceremonies which mark the official dedication of the Johnson
Spacecraft Center. Most of you knew the late President well
enough to be fully familiar with his great contribution to
the peaceful development of space. Lyndon Johnson put the
Space Program on the drawing board and into action. Ile was
the first public official to concentrate the vast material
and intellectual resources of our country behind the program
which placed men on the Moon and which is one of the great
technological and spiritual achievements in the history of
the world. Those who worked with him know best the full
range of this remarkable man's contribution to space explora-
tion. When the late President left Uashington to return to
his beloved hill country, his staff, the people who had
SD-I/3
Time: 3:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

BRISCOE served him throughout every challenge and


every triumph of his career, presented him with a gift which
was symbolic of his accomplishments. They chose to present
to the President the first scale model of the Moon, a scale
model of both sides, a feat made possible only when the Moon
had been orbited and mapped for the first time in history.
The inscription reads, "To Lyndon Baines Johnson, who as
Senator, aroused the Nation to the challenge of space; as
Vice-President lifted our eyes to the Moon; as President,
spurred us on that journey with his leadership." The inscrip-
tion ends, "From those who know best." Six critical early
steps to the Moon are shown. November 1957 to January 1958,
chaired by Senator Johnson, Senate Preparedness Subcommittee
responds to the challenge of Sputnik with the first congres-
sional hearings on space. February to July 1958, chaired
by Senator Johnson, Senate Special Committee on Space, shapes
National Aeronautics and Space Act establishing NASA and
Space Council. April - -

END OF TAPE
SD-2/I
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8/27/73

SPEAKER (CONT'D) chaired by Senator Johnson, Senate Special


Committee on space shapes National Aeronautics and Space Act,
establishing NASA and Space Council, April, 1961. Chaired by
Vice President Johnson. National Aeronautics and Space Council
determines U.S. Moon landing is feasible. April, 28, 1961.
Vice President Johnson reports to President Kennedy that Moon
trip could be undertaken before 1970 by American austronauts.
May 25, 1961, President Kennedy, with the advise of Vice
President Johnson, recommends to Congress that the United States
send a man to the Moon within this decade. And during 1964
through 1968, the U.S. space program as NASA Administrator
James Webb states it for history is, "The lenghthened shadow
of Lyndon Johnson." Now that the Manned Space Craft Center
will bare his name. The roll of Lyndon Johnson and the develop-
ment of our American space program will become better known
and better appreciated. For Lyndon Baines Johnson was truly
the father of American space development. He was a man whose
hand was bold enough to reach for the star and the world is
indebted to him for what he accomplished. Thank you. (Applause)
SPEAKER Thank you Governor Briscoe. To present
the address this afternoon is my pleasure to call on Dr. James
C. Fletcher, the Administrator of NASA. Dr. Fletcher. (Applause)
FLETCHER This is indeed a most ospicious occasion.
_- We have received telegrams, letters from all over the world
congratulating us on President Johnson's birthday, but parti-
cularly on the dedication of this space center. I'd like to
read two. One, is a telegram from the President of the United
States.: "It is most appropriate that America commemorate the
birthday of her former late President Lyndon B. Johnson, by
the official dedication of the Manned Spacecraft Center in
Houston in his name. I said when signing the bill renaming
the center, that few men in our time, have better understood
the value of space exploration than Lyndon Johnson. This
ceremony faithfully embraces the rugged determination and
untiring leadership that enables Americans to pioneer space
research for the benefit of all mankind. It is with deepest
personal respect for his accomplishments and for the spirit
that evoked them, that I express on behalf of all our citizens
my warmest greetings to Mrs. Johnson and all who will be taking
part with her in this fitting memorial." Signed, Richard Nixon.
We also, strange as it may seem, have received a message from
outer space from the crew of Skylab III. It came this morning
over the intercomm from Captain Alan Bean, Commander of Skylab III.
It says, "Owen, Jack, and I would like to send our best wishes
to Mrs. Johnson, Governor Briscoe, Dr. Fletcher, Dr. Kraft, and
all the distinguished guests and officials at the dedication
of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center today. The work in which
SD-2/2
_- Time: 03:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

FLETCHER (CONT'D) we are right now engaged in Skylab, would


not have been possible except for his strong support and
leadership in the Senate and in the President - Presidency.
Our present preeminence in space is in no small way a result
of the grasp of the fact, that a progressive program of space
exploration contributes significantly into the future future
well being of our nation and to all it's people. _le are proud
to be representing NASA and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
as we circle the Earth. We believe the work that we do here,
now, is an extension of that which we - which he chartered
and championed." Signed, Skylab III crew. (Applause) As
you already know, on February 17th of this year, President Nixon
signed into law a joint resolution of the Congress designating
this Manned Spacecraft Center of the National Aeronautics
Space Administration, as the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
Thus, did our nation act to honor a _reat son of Texas, an
outstanding President, and a crusader in mankind's conquest
of space. We're here today to lend a more personal touch to
this formal Act of State honoring the late President. We're
also here today to dedicate this newly named center to future
decades of space achievement. Above all, we're here today
to rededicate ourselves and NASA to achieving the peaceful
uses of space which President Johnson saw for America and
for mankind. Lyndon Baines Johnson was well knowned to most
of us who are here. He was at home in this center. Mrs.
Johnson, I hope you and your family will always feel welcomed
and at home here too. No other person did more to move America
and the world rapidly into the space age than Lyndon Johnson.
This center that proudly bares his name, is a symbol of what
was accomplished by his foreseeing untiring leadership. I
hope that we will always operate this center and the whole
space program in such a way that Lyndon Johnson would say,
I'm mighty proud of what you're doing here. It was of
course, most fitting of the Congress of the United States
to find it appropriate to give Presidents - President Johnson's
name to this center. His contributions, as Governor Briscoe
said, to the space effort of the United States, are well
known and are unparalleled. They were the contributions, first,
of a gifted law maker, then of a trusted advisor to the
young President Kennedy, and finally, they were the contri-
butions of a President who suddenly bore the full responsi-
bility for achieving the attentive laws he had written and
the bolded advise he had given. This is what the resolution
passed by the Congress and signed by the President Nixon
says of President Johnson. It says, "Lyndon B. Johnson was
one of the first of our national leaders to recognize the
long range benefits of an intensive space exploration program.
SD-2/3
Time: 03:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

_ FLETCHER CONT'D) Lyndon D. - B. Johnson as Senate majority


leader established and served as chairman of the special
committee on Space and Aeronautics, which gave the initialed
direction of the United States' space effort. Lyndon B. Johnson,
as Vice President of the United States, served as Chairman of
the National Aeronautics and Space Council which recommended the
goals for the Manned Space Program. Lyndon B. Johnson, for
5 years as President of the United States, bore ultimate
responsibility for the development of the Gemini and the
Apollo programs which resulted in man's first landing on the
Moon. These are plains words, but when read with an under-
standing of all that has been accomplished in the space programs,
which Lyndon Johnson shaped, then urged and fought for, the
facts speak for themselves. They do not need further adornment.
The first 15 years of the Space Age, the fabulous first 15 years,
clearly bare the stamp of the wisdom, the will, and the boldness
of this man. There's another con- major contribution that is
not so well know and not specifically mentioned in the reso-
lution. It is the great fight that he led to make sure that
the Manned Space Programs of the United States, would not
stop with Apollo and that unmanned exploration of the planets
should be intensified. It took great political courage for
President Johnson to put funds for important new programs in
his budgets back in 1965, then '66, and '67, when the big
bills for Apollo were coming due, he too, faced critics who
know the price of everything in the value of nothing. But he
f_ prevailed in his views that the programs of the sixties were - -

END OF TAPE
SD-3/I
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8/27/73

FLETCHER - view of nothing. But he prevailed


in his views that the programs of the sixties were only a
prelude to the real promise of space. Thanks to his deter-
mination and foresight _n those difficult years the Skylab
space station is in orbit today. And the Viking spacecraft
is being readied to explore Mars in the summer of 1976.
Some have said, indeed, some are still saying, that the
successful completion of Apollo was the logical stopping
place for manned space flight. That, I am thankful to say
was not the logic of LBJ nor is it the logic of Texas, or
of this pioneering nation. The decision to continue with
a strong space program after Apollo, may in the long run
prove to be the most important of the decisive actions
Lyndon Johnson took on behalf of space progress. His
support of Skylab and Viking and many other new programs
in the latter years of his presidency, enabled President
Nixon to continue them and then to move forward with his
own contribution to the productive and profitable of space,
the space shuttle. Without these basic affirmative decisions
of President Johnson, there would not be any space center
in Houston. Thanks to his recognition to the value of
America's role in space, the future of this center is bright.
And the prospects of the whole world, I believe, are the better
for it. President Johnson is very proud of the leading
f- role he played in the drafting and passage of the space
act which created NASA in 1958, and he made no secret of
it. Many of you may recall what the President said here
at this center on March i, 1968, as Governor Briscoe said,
"I have spent almost 38 years in the Nation's Capital. In all
that period of time, I have voted for thousands of bills
and I have written a few, but the one legislative enactment
that I suppose I am proudest of is the bill that I wrote
and introduced that made possible NASA. It brought into
existence this great facility and others in the program
throughout the Nation." President Johnson repeated this
statement on a number of occasions, including his last
press conference as President. Jim Webb, here on the stand,
who was administrator of NASA under Presidents Kennedy and
Johnson, probably had a closer view and a keener appreciation
of what Lyndon Johnson thought about the space program and
did for the space program than any other man. I would therefore
like to quote a few words of his if you don't mind, Jim, spoken
at a time when he had already retired as head of NASA and
President Johnson was about to leave the White House. At a
White House dinner shortly before the first Apollo flight to the
Moon, Mr. Webh said to the President, "It was your legislative
8D-312
TIME: 03:06 CDT 15:06 GMT
8/27/73
f_

leadership Mr. President, and skill that provided the success


framework in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1968 - 1958.
In 1961, large goals were set, and here again it was your
executive leadership that drove us forward, but even with
a first-class legislative foundation and large goals, success
could only come through continued strong commitment
and support. That you have always provided through every
phase of each space age generation. As old programs approached
completion and new ones had to be started." Mr. Webb then
proposed this toast to our great space age patron and leader,
The President of the United States. I was especially
impressed by Mr. Webb's remark that even with a first-class
legislative foundation and large goals, success could only
come through continued strong committment and support. This
was never more true than it is today. In a world of rapid
change, priorieties shift quickly. The urgent needs of
today are soon overshadowed by new concerns, new problems_
new priorities, and because we take pride in our pragmatism,
we Americans tend to be an impatient people. We insist that
government programs produce an immediate visible result.
Pragmatism is commendable as long as it does not cause us
to be short cited or succumb to the temptation to put aside
programs of far-reaching importance. Those whose long term
returns are difficult to define. To put aside these in
favor of instant answer efforts. Such impatience frequently
leads us to deal with the symptoms instead of the causes
of problems. As a nation, we should expect great expectations,
but we should also have the patience and the foresight
and the committment to fulfill these expectations. The
space program is not an instant answer program. It is a
long term investment in the future of mankind. An investment
that deserves the support and committment of all of our
citizens. New technology for any purpose has to be put
under development i0 or 15 years ahead of time, ahead of
the time when we first put it to use. It cannot he called
up on demand. Space technology, of course, is no exception
to this principal. Fortunately for us and for the world,
the four presidents, during the first 15 years of the
space age, have had the courage, vision, and self confidence
to support a strong U.S. space effort. When we think of
the long range future of the space program, it's interesting
to recall the predictions that President Johnson made when he
visited here in March of 1968. During the plane ride from
Washington, he had talked with two distinguished scientists,
Fred Sites, President of the National Academy of Sciences,
and Dr. Stark Draper, of the Masschusettes Institute of
Technology. "Today", President Johnson said, " I want to

F
SD-3/3
TIME: 03:06 CDT 15:06 GMT
f_ 8/27/73

review for you some of the things we talked about coming down
on the plane this afternoon. I predict," President Johnson
said, "That i0 years from now, some other President will
come here and stand where I am and congratulate the
people of this center, some of you may still be around,
for your amazing achievments. This new president will see
them at work in a giant station in space. He will see
them at work assessing the exact status and the value of
wheat and rice as they are growing all over this Earth.
He will see predicting with phenominal accuracy, the amount
of water that is available to each farmer for growing the
following years crops. He will see them controlling
thousands of peaceful air and space vehicles that are at
work for mankind in all the regions of the Earth. He
will see them developing a worldwide overview of our
great city. An overview that can be used by scientists
and engineers to guide new economic and political institutions.
Political scientists and social scientists, as well as
physical scientists, engineers and administrators will
then know because of the work at this center, more than
our generation can ever know about the causes of pollution,
about the use of recreational areas, about all the knowledge
that mankind needs if we are to continue our steady advance
towards a great destiny." It seems remarkably prophetic
f doesn't it? These predictions about what a future President
might see here were made 5 years ago, and he was looking,
say i0 years into the future, to about 1978. Much of
what he predicted, as many of you know, is already being
done by ERTS-I. ERTS is Earth Resources technology satellite,
ERTS-I. And by the astronauts using the Earth Resources ex-
periment package, EREP, on Skylab. We have already demonstrated
the great value of using satellites and remote sensors
and computer print-outs to obtain a better understanding
of what is happening to our environment. Locally and on
a global scale, and what can be done about it. We may
not have the new generation of Earth observation and
environmental satellites in operation when the President
comes here in 1978, but I hope we will have such observational
systems under development as approved programs by that time,
I hope so and I expect so. President Johnson, in his
prediction, spoke of a giant spaeestation in orbit. Well,
we already have Skylab and it's big. As big as a three
bedroom house -

END OF TAPE

f
SD-4/I
Time: 03:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

FLETCHER President Johnson and his predictions spoke


of a giant space station orbit. Well, we already have Skylab
and it's big as big as a three bedroom house - and it is
a most important step forward in demonstrating the useful
purposes that man's space stations can serve. We will have
something better than the space station. The versatile reuse-
able space shuttle. The space shuttle can be outfitted as
a space laboratory for many different missions of several
weeks or longer. And in this mode will serve as a space station.
Someday, it will serve as the logistics link between the
space ports of Earth and the permanent manned laboratories -
manned observatories and industrial enterprises that we plan
to have in Earth orbit. In any event, when our future Presi-
dent visits the Johnson Space Center in 1978 or '79, it may
well be during or just after the first space shuttle flight
in orbit and he can proclaim the opening, as Chris Kraft said,
"The opening of a new chapter in the fast moving story of
man's efforts to explore and use space." Our first satellite
was placed in orbit in 1958. Our first manned flight to the
Moon was in 1968. Our first space shuttle in Earth orbit
will be in 1978. We are indeed a fast moving nation. It is
most appropriate that we take time out today to honor the
man who did so much to give America this course and this
momentum in space. And now, if I too may make a prediction,
it is that many Presidents of the United States will come to
the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in the decades ahead, and
each will draw strength and inspiration from the fact that
there was in the early years, a man with the vision, the courage,
the will, and the leadership of the man that we honor today.
We honor him in the right and privilege to use his name
honors this Center. We are most grateful, Mrs. Johnson to
you, Mrs. Robb, Mrs. Nugent and your grandson, I don't know
- remember whether he was introduced by Chris Kraft, your
grandson for being with us here today. The people of this
center have long felt it should bear the name of Lyndon B.
Johnson. Not only because of his personal contributions to
progress in space, but because he was known as a man of
decisive action, who got things done. That is the tradition
of NASA. And that is why we are so honored to have this
center bear his name. And you, Mrs. Johnson, knowing best
that it is something the late President would have been
proud of too, have enthusiastically joined us today, to make
it truly official. Thank you very much. (Applause)
SPEAKER Now, at this time, I'd like to ask
Jim Webb to come up to the sculpture and Chris Kraft to escort
Mrs. Johnson.

f
SD-4/2
Time: 03:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

SPEAKER Mrs. Johnson. I want to fix this microphone


for you.
MRS. JOHNSON Thank you. I think that's fine. Thank
you Dr. Fletcher. Governor Briscoe, Jim Webb, friends, so
many emotions crowd my mind on this occasion. Pride, excite-
ment, nostalgia, and with all of them, so many memories. The
list of those who have contributed to the success of this
great center is long. At the head of that list, is a name
we all remember with respect and affection - Congressman
Albert Thomas, who was most responsible for transforming this
Texas pasture into the command post for human kind's greatest
adventure. (Applause) And there is a memory of how it all
began. It was so short a time ago, as the world moves, that
we awoke to find it had been catapulted into the Space Age.
That October day, in 1957, when we learned that the Soviet
Union had launched a satellite to circle the globe, was one
of those days when you are aware that history is turning.
For us, my husband and me, and a small group of guests, the
news of Sputnik came while we were at the ranch. Silently,
gazing into the sky, each with his own thoughts, we walked
along the little river, the Pedernales, that runs in front of
our house. All of us eerily aware that a new and unknown
element had changed our familiar world. My husband's reaction
was a response to challenge. From that night on, through all
the years of his increasing responsibility, he acted out of
a firm faith that the conquest of space could be accomplished
by our country, should be, and was worth the doing. Over a
long career of service) he had the satisfaction of seeing
the fulfillment of many of his dreams. But few of his ex-
periences brought him greater pride than his part in the
architecture of the space legislation, which led to the
momentous adventures of these incredible years. And from
the begining, he believed in more than just the conquest of
space. He wanted to bridle this great force for the cause
of peace. He believed that the infinity of space, could
provide a common ground for all nations to work together.
Putting aside the differences, suspicions, and conflicts of
this planet. So, among his satisfactions, very high among
them, was knowing that he had had a hand in assuring that
our space program would be vested under civilian control.
Giving his name to this great center, the LBJ Space Center,
dedicated to the peaceful exploration of space, is a birthday
gift I know he would deeply appreciate. I thank all of you
who have had a part in this wonderful commemoration of my
husband's life and works, it is my prayer that God will guide
and guard all who in future years make the journey towards
the stars. Thank you everybody for coming. (Applause)
SD-4/3
Time: 03:06 CDT, 15:06 GMT
8/27/73

KRAFT Mrs. Johnson, we hope that this will he


rememberance for you for this day. I'd like to read you this
plaque. It says, "This flag was carried to the Moon by the
Apollo ii astronauts during the first manned lunar landing,
July 20, 1969, presented to Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson on the
occasion of the dedication of the Lyndon B. Johnson Center,
August 27, 1973."
MRS. JOHNSON Oh, Dr. Kraft, (applause) I'm so proud.
SPEAKER Following the benediction, which completes
our program for today, I ask that you all would remain in
your seats as we get the news media 5 minutes to get their
photographs. We're going to reenact the unveiling of the
bust and Bishop Richardson will now give the benediction.
Bishop Richardson.

END OF TAPE

f
SD5/I
3:06 pm CDT
8/27/73

KRAFT - - photographs. We're going to reenact


the unveiling of the bust and Bishop Richardson will now
give the benediction. Bishop Richardson.
RICHARDSON Under God's gracious mercy and protection,
we commit you. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord
make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you,
the Lord lift up His countenenee upon you and give you peace,
both now and evermore. Amen.
KRAFT Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
Our program is completed. I'd like to request that you all
please continue to remain in your seats until our distinguished
guests have left the stage. Thank you.
SPEAKER Ladies and gentlemen, it is expected that
Mrs. Johnson will be out here in a matter of 3 to 5 minutes
to address the crowd briefly, if you'll just stand by. Thank
you.
SPEAKER Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson.
MRS. JOHNSON I just want to share my happiness and
excitement with you all and to thank you for being here
today. I remember standing in this very same spot with
Lyndon not long ago. l'm very proud that this is going to
carry his name from now on. Thank you.
SPEAKER Mrs. Johnson, I'm (garble) and an employee
here at the Johnson Space Center, and on behalf of all the
employees, we wish to present you with this bouquet.
MRS. JOHNSON Thank you so much.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 27,1973
4:24 p.m. CDT

PARTICIPANTS:

Milton Windler, Flight Director


Milt Reim, PAO

PC-70
SL-III PC-70A/I
Time: 16:24 CDT
8/27/73

PAO We'll get started with the afternoon


change-of-shift briefing. We have with us Flight Director
Milton Windler. We'll let him go right ahead with it.
WINDLER Okay. Today was a pretty quiet day. I
guess I was halfway through it before I realized what the
difference was and it seems that Owen had stopped talking
so much about the ATM. A couple of weeks ago, when he first
got on the console, it seemed like he talked almost the
entire 8 minutes of each pass. But now it's kind of steadied
down, I guess. The crew did their regular scheduled activities.
They apparently were able to successfully rig up this extra
experiment assembly for SO63 that they'll be taking some
pictures of aurora. They did say that they had the wrong
lens or they ask us about the lens that they had on the
camera and I think they realized that it wasn't the right
one and sure enough it wasn't. On a familiarization run
that they were supposed to make. However, they offerred to
run another pass on that tonight so they'll be doing that on
they have a pass this afternoon and there will be another
one tonight where they'll try to operate that experiment.
We did the battery test and the on another AM battery.
And it came out to be about like the first one which indicates
that the batteries had - were in a normal state of charge,
you might say. Of course, they're not as high as they were
when they started out_ but they're still equal to the normal
rating and the dropoff level, I guess you'd call it, is what
we had expected on all the batteries and, of course, this
is true for the AM. We didn't do any more tests with the
ATM batteries today and we're still evaluating that. I can't
tell you very much about it. I don't know if I mentioned
or not yesterday that we got the final version of the evalua-
tions on the EREP passes. We really don't think we have
any great difficulties with the EREP passes for the rest
of this mission even with the higher Beta angles that we're -
I mean the lower Beta angles that we're going to be having.
We anticipate that we'll still be able to get about 6 amp
hours out of each ATM battery. Now, as I indicated yesterday,
we're still looking at all of that and need to try to decide
what how much we should be taking out as the weeks go along.
But we think we're okay now until the end of Skylab III.
And that's about it, I guess. Tomorrow's another standard
day with the exception that we launch another one of these
calibration rockets and do a special ATM calibration run in
the afternoon if the rocket all goes well.
QUERY Have I got it correctly? During the conver-
sations, reference was made to 32 amp hours with one of the
SL-III PC-70A/2
Time: 16:24 CDT
8/27/73

QUERY batteries and I came in late on this. Do


you have any idea what that was, what that 32 amps referred
to?
WINDLER Are you talking about air-to-ground conver-
sation with the crew?
QUERY Yes.
WINDLER Probably - I really don't remember exactly
other than that was about the value that we got out of the
airlock module battery. Both of them, as a matter of fact.
On the order of 32 - 33 amp hours. And that is a certain
amount that's not taken out of the battery, probably around
3 amp hours, so the total capacity is up around 36, which is
higher than the so-called main plate but less than they were
when we started.
PAO Right here.
QUERY (garble)
WINDLER I haven't heard - Go ahead. I'm sorry I
thought you were finished.
QUERY Has anybody talked about anything today.
WINDLER Not that I know of. I'm sure they have. I
just don't know about it. But that's a very complicated sub-
ject and those tests weren't goin E on and so we I guess
I really can't add very much to what I said the other day.
That was just one theory. That was that the battery perhaps
is sensing that it's fully charged just a little bit less
- than what is truly a fully charged situation. So, consequently,
it's not quite getting all the way back up each time. Now
we may find it as something else but right now that's a pos-
sibility.
QUERY Have you rescheduled Anita's television debut
yet.

END OF TAPE
SL III PC-7OB/I
TIME: 16:24 CDT
8/27/73

SPEAKER anything else, but right now, that's


a possibility.
QUERY Have you rescheduled Anita's television
debut yet?
SPEAKER Well, I guess that kind of depends on
how she does. Well, she did have her television debut, hut
not spinning. In fact, I thought that was kind of interestin_
the initial reaction. And I guess we'll have to stand by
and see, you know, how she does at web construction.
PAO Any more questions? Okay, that's all.
Thank you.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 28, 1973
4:14 pm CDT

Participants:

Milton Windler, Flight Director


Gatha Cottee, PAO

PC-71

t_
SL-III PC-71-A/I
Time: 16:14 CDT
8/28/73

PAO Change-of-shlft briefing with Milt Windier.


(Garble)
WINDLER Okay, well, I'm still in that same quandary.
Y'all come over here every day and I come over here every day,
and l'm supposed to make some momentous statement, I guess,
but the only thing that's happening is that the crew is
just doing all kinds of good scientific things and getting
their work all done per the flight plan. And things are
going along well, so I guess I'ii have just to stand by for
questions. I will mention that - once again, I can't tell
you too much more about the batteries. The latest blue
ribbon committee is studying the battery data. I believe
they're physically at Marshall and they're supposed to re-
port on Thursday morning. So, other than that there a lot
of theories going around, which you would expect of course,
we really don't have any good story. We still don't expect
to have any major effect on the rest of the Skylab-lll, and
mostly they're looking at what steps we should take in order
to protect the capability and make the best possibility of
achieving all the desirable things on Skylab-lV.
QUERY Milt, you made the you were talking about
that yesterday, how it wasn't going to effect this mission,
and as I recall from one of our earlier discussions about it,
you were saying that they might have to either shorten the
individual passes, do more of them, shorter ones, or have
to do a lot more powering-down. Is that not the case as
it appears now?
WINDLER That's correct. We - I think you'll recall,
I said we were taking about 6 amp-hours per battery out
in the past. And, right now, nobody thinks that we're going
that we'll have to change that. And as long as we can
do that we'll be able to do the longer EREP passes. And,
I think, like I say, nobody has any indications now that
we're going to have to change that capacity - the amount
that we're taking out for the passes.
PAO Hal.
QUERY Just before we came over here they sent up
this - they told us about this warning that was sent up about
the bicycle ergometer - not to use it so much, or let it
cool down inbetween. What is there a danger that they
could - they could bust the thing altogether?
WINDLER Well, I wouldn't call it a danger. I think
that Jack is a pretty healthy guy, and he rides it for long
periods of time at high levels_ and I think the intent of
that message as it was explained to me that any time Jack's getting
ready to ride it they want to try to let it cool down for
2 hours before that. And they had to translate that into

f
SL-III PC-71A/2
Time: 16:14 CDT
8/28/73

numbers, and it caused quite a bit of discussion as to how


you would express that on a message. But_ no, I don't think
there's any - there's not any great concern other than that
we just don't want to - you know, stress it anymore than
we have to. But, it's certainly adequate for all the normal
amount of exercise that they need to get, and that they are
have been getting.
QUERY He's not going to have to limit his exercise
period or cut it down to two half-hour segments or anything
like that is he?
WINDLER No, the only thing is we don't want all
three of them - we don't him to be the last guy to ride it
too much.
QUERY What's on the flight plan tomorrow?
WINDLER I think it's another MO92 run. We're going
to take a picture of Paraguay from the solar inertial at-
titude and there's probably a whole bunch of summary flight
plans outside. It's just a - we will be doing another TO20
run, that's that little small foot-maneuvering unit thing.
Nothing real unusual.
QUERY Are you going to use the ETC tomorrow on
that Paraguay thing?
WINDLER Yes, we are.
QUERY Well, I didn't - oh, okay, I didn't realize
that worked_ I guess - well, I guess it comes out of the
anti-solar SAL doesn't it?
WINDLER Yes, and it works
QUERY I mean - in solar inertial - l'd forgotten
that. I guess - -
WINDLER As a matter of fact they - this is a sort
of a mapping project that the government has asked us to do
down there, the government of Paraguay. And it is better if
it's taken obliquely, as opposed to straight down. They
like several oblique shots and photographers, if that's the
right word, take those kind of pictures and make precision
maps out of them. It works out very nicely they tell me
that it enables you to - to do a lot of work - make precise
maps o_er a big area with a small amount of - I don't know
whether effort's the right word, but you know, with a few
photographs.
QUERY What specific site in Paraguay are you looking
at?
WINDLER Well, it's our intention to cover the whole
thing, but there is a handheld place in Paraguay that I can't
pronounce. It's described on - -

END OF TAPE

f
SL-III PC-71B/I
Time: 16:14 CDT
f_
8/28/73

WINDLER - there is a handheld place in Paraguay


that I can't pronounce that's described on some message that
we sent up as a green hell of a swamp and pralre grass or
salt grass or something like that and that may mean something.
You're shaking your head like you have heard it before but I
SPEAKER Grand Cha o?
WINDLER Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I've been
exposed to so many of those names they're all kind of mixed up.
There's as a (garble) swamp or something like that in Africa
and a desert right next to it, (garble).
QUERY Did they get that Grand Chaco picture
today do you know?
WINDLER They took it but I don't think the - weather
sounded to me like it wasn't just real good, from what AI was
saying.
QUERY On the same line that the - voice this
morning said that they're looking for a tribe of Mennonites
in there too. Is there a lost tribe or something in there
that they're looking for?
WINDLER I didn't hear that, not Mennonites, surely.
Is that what they said?
QUERY Just what they said, that's what the guy
said this morning.
WINDLER (garble) I didn't hear that. I'm sorry.
That must have happened before I came on. (laughter) I
was there at 7.
QUERY On that Grand Chaco picture wasn't that the
one that Bean could not find and was suggesting fixes for
finding it and other sites again for his crew and SL-4?
WINDLER Yes it was. That led him into a discussion
about how it was easier if they had some more precise pointing
capability of some fashion. He discussed several ways of doing
that. He pointed out that in areas where it was in open
land areas away from the sea coast, away from a river that it was
hard to tell one part of an area from the rest of it. And he spent
a lot of his time trying to identify the area and not much
time actually you know taking the pictures or doing these
observations which are a series of questions about terrain.
And I got the impression from what he was saying as I indicated
that - that there were some clouds. I don't - there wasn't
overcast or anything like that. I mean he was able to see the
ground but it did make it - the clouds also made it more difficult.
And I don't know, until we get the pictures back, you know
how successful the photographs would be.
QUERY Shortly after that he suggested that Garriott
be given a chance to ride this AMU. He is going to be allowed
to do that?

f
SL-III PC-71B/2
Time: 16:14 CDT
8/28/73

WINDLER I don't know, we hadn't planned to run that


anymore this mission and - not with Owen and to me it sound like
a reasonable thing and that's being cranked in through the
program and to see how it comes to pass with some of the
other objectives and how much time we think is available, so
it's yes it's being considered but we won't have the answer
for awhile yet, of course.
PAO AI.
QUERY Now the T020 tomorrow, are they making
any adjustments in the straps and so on.
WINDLER Yes they are they've given the crew a
procedure which has been sent up this afternoon and may get
discussed tonight, I would expect it to be. On strapping
themselves more firmly in the lower unit.
QUERY Is that a suited or unsuited run on T020?
WINDLER Unsuited, I believe.
QUERY Okay, and also I'd really never really
thought about the ETC -
WINDLER I was just going to say, I think there's
another run later on that does have the suit in it.
QUERY I never really thought about the terrain
camera being used out of the (garble) solar SAL as it, I guess
it does. How do they operate that when they are in Z-local
vertical when that's really not pointed you know directed or
is it used at an angle or do they point it at something
different - -
WINDLER Well, I didn't check the angles and you
recognize of course that as you go through noon - sunrise
you are at 90 degrees and as you go through noon, you're directly
down, more or less and then you go through the other 90 degrees
attitude so you pass through a variety and I didn't get the
exact angles we will he passing through when we go over that
particular part of the ground. Also the Beta angle cocks you off
some too, so - but it does point at the ground certainly during
a part of the orbit.
QUERY Just under normal,, I'm talking about during
a regular EREP pass - -
WINDLER Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
QUERY - - how they operate. Is that -
WINDLER Well the EREP pass is in what we call
Z-local vertical, it's programed so that it rotates in all of
the axes and flies at a rate, orb rate so that it's always
pointed right straight down at the earth and so the camera
is then always taking pictures straight down. That's - that's
when we get into this attitude. Of course we have a maneuver
that gets us there.
SL-III PC-71B/3
Time: 16:14 CDT
_- 8/28/73

QUERY You start EREP again day after tomorrow


don' t you?
WINDLER No the weather don't look to good for that.
I'd - I've kind of - we'll be looking at those at a day by
day basis. We got into to this because we thought perhaps
we'd have this power problem and we wouldn't be able to do
the normal -

END OF TAPE

i
SL III PC-71C/I
TIME: 16:14 CDT
8/28/73

WINDLER We'll he looking at those on a day to day


basis. We got into this because we thought we'd have this
power problem and we wouldn't be able to do the normal EREP
schedule that we planned on and now that doesn't look like
a critical item, so we will he looking at them day by day,
and if the weather is real good on some of them, they'll be
considered like any other opportunity. The day after tomorrow
doesn't - the weather didn't look - and the number of sites
we got accomplished didn't add up to something we ought to
do. So it wasn't put on the Flight Plan. We'll end it day
after tomorrow, l'm talking about tomorrow, I guess, really,
and I don't think it looks too good for the day after that,
either.
PAO Any more questions? Thank you Milt.

END OF TAPE

f
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 30, 1973
4:16 p.m. CDT

PARTICIPANTS:

Don Puddy, Flight Director


Dr. Royce Hawkins, Plight Surgeon
Bill Moon, ETIL - Electrical Control
Fred Mayes, PAO

i. PC-74
SL-III PC-74A/I
Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

PAO Gentlemen, we have with us today, Flight


Director, Don Puddy, and he has with him Bill Moon, on the
Electrical Systems Environmental Control Systems to discuss
them to some extent. Flight Surgeon, Dr. Royce Hawkins, will
be joining us in a few minutes. After Don's statement, we
will take questions, if you'll wait for the microphone, please.
Don?
PUDDY Okay. We had more or less a standard day,
today. I think a couple of items are noteworthy, however,
and let me mention those. One was, we had the largest sun-
spot that we've seen during the Skylab manned mission. This
was about 40 arc seconds in diameter, or around 18,000 statute
miles. Normally, our sunspots run somewhere in the order
of i0 to 20 arc seconds. And about the only thing I think
that would be of significance from the standpoint of sun-
spot activity, as far as an overall indicator on the Sunj
is the fact that usually these are indicative of the begin-
ning of increased activity, and we do expect the Sun to
become more active over the next week - period of time.
Also, of course, when we start getting sunspots on the Sun
we start seeing increased radio interference here on Earth.
We did view a couple of subflares today. These were impor-
tant to us only from the standpoint of - the fact that we
did have a couple of flares that were indicative of the
increased solar activity. They were only important from
the standpoint of optical. They weren't significant enough
to produce major X-rays, or anything. And the crew merely
observed them, didn't take any special data takes or any-
thing of this nature. We went ahead and completed our normal
scheduling. We viewed the tropical depression today, and
did make a small spacecraft maneuver to do that. Crew re-
ported that it excuse me. The crew reported that it did
have the typical profile of a tropical storm. And we were
advised by the National Hurricane Center that the storm has
reached gale winds around 50 miles an hour. And I believe
they named it Christine. It's now about 1200 miles east of
Trinidad and moving westward at about i0 to 12 miles per
hour. And we can probably expect to see some advisories
coming out on that storm shortly. Tomorrow's Flight Plan
is very similar to what we've been running. I think the
only unique feature is the fact that the science pilot will
be making an M509 run. And as y'all have probably been
briefed before, he did not go through the extensive training
on 509, but he is very excited about running it and we've
given him a go ahead on that. You probably may have copied
- on some of the transcripts, that last night we did advise
SL-III PC-74A/2
Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

the crew, that the primary AM coolant loop, as far as we're


concerned, is no longer considered usable. I think we've
seen pressures, - what, Bill? Down around a half of psi
on the cold side? And as I've indicated to you previously,
we do not desire to run the pumps in that loop without lower
pressures, strictly from the standpoint that we know we do
have a reservicing capability, both on Skylab-lll, should
it be required, although we'd not planned to do it, normally.
And also on Skylab-IV, which is being worked. We see no
problems with the secondary loop and certainly expect it
to perform all the functions through Skylab-lll and Skylab-IV,
and probably for quite some time thereafter. If, however,
Just to give you a feel for what would happen, the secondary
loop should fail, we can power the spacecraft down to a level
around 3500 watts, could expect to see a temper - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-74B/I
Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

PUDDY - - group should fail. We can power the


spacecraft down to a level of around 3500 watts. Could expect
to see a temperature increase of around Ii degrees as far as the
overall cabin temp is concerned and as far as the experiments and
things of this nature that could be accomplished. We've built
more - be more or less in the same posture we were in
Skylab-2 before we got the wing out. Simplest analogy I
can give you on that. There was probably something also
heard on the rate gryo as far as having an integral problem
and let me set the records straight on that one real quick.
There is absolutely no problem whatsoever with the 6-pack
gyros, they're looklng very very good. The integral difference
that was reported that's strictly something we know can occur
in the system_ generally it fall - follows some sort of
(garble). In this case, it was a momenum inhibit. And
basically what happens in the in the X-axls_ the integrals
on the gyros don't return to zero after the first dump maneuver
that we go through. They subsequently do and so there is
no problem whatsoever with the rate gyros _n fact we measured
the drift in the Z3 gyro today which is the only one that
did not have a - a zero drift compensation. And today we
determined that it is now zero_ so all the rate gyros that
are online right now have a zero drift compensation. Thetis
something that we haven't seen in quite some. time and are
very pleased with. We did have a condensate system anomaly
.... that we've been working. Basically we Just haven't been able
to get up to the Delta P of around 4-1/2 that we would llke
in order to keep our dew point down. It a - last night, they
were only able to get a maximum Delta P of around 3.4 psi D.
And today we went through several procedures trying to find
out just exactly where the problem was. Welve isolated it
down now to 3 or 4 possibilities and I'm not sure exactly
what we're going to find the problem to be. It looks llke
right now, we either have a little bit of comtaminatlon that
may be plugglng up the orifice which is really very very
small. It's a .075 inches in diameter. Or we possibly could
have a - a heater problem. Where we're allowlnE, ice to
build in - to build up or it's possible that we have a
combination of one of those with a transducer that's drifting
a little bit and Just not giving us a true indication of
what our Delta P is. We did flow some hot water through the
sectional llne, we did not think we were drawing an adequate
volume. And where the Commander had previously reported that
he could not feel any vacuum subsequent to that he reported
that he had a good vacuum. Subsequently_ after we went ahead
and did another condensate dump and still didn't get to the
pressure that we had hoped to. We got back up to 3.4 Delta P
SL-III PC-74B/2
Time: 17:16 CDT
8130173

PUDDY (CONT'D) For some reason about 40 minutes later,


it was up to 3.72 and still climhin E. So where it's going
to stabilize out right now, we don't know. We will go through
that procedure, one more time tonight and if that doesn't
clarify the clear the problem then we do have a completely
redundant probe assembly which contains the heaters and a
new orifice that can be installed and we feel like with one
of these steps we'll certainly be able to eliminate that problem.
As far as the batteries are concerned, I think that Milt had
talked to you very briefly - giving you some indication of
what we had on that and let me add possibly a couple of
other comments to that. I think you're probably well aware that
the batteries, all of the ATM batteries now are considered
to have some where between Ii and 13 amp hours capacity. We
certalnly expect to be no lower than i0 amp hours in each
of these batteries, due to just nominal -

END OF TAPE

f
SL-III PC-74CII
Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

PUDDY - - we certainly expect to be no lower than


i0 amp-hours in each of these batteries, due to Just nominal
cyclic degradation by the end of Skylab-IV. So, we really
won't - unless something unforeseen happens, we really donVt
expect to have a major change in our electrical power situa-
tion between now and the end of Skylab-IV. As far as exactly
what all this is going to mean to us in terms of EREP and
other maneuvers where we do require the increased electrical
power, since we're out of solar inertial attitude. That
all hasn't been resolved yet. We are workin E as rapidly as
we possibly can, to develop the criteria under which we're
going to work those passes, and should have those in a maxi-
mum of two days. Hopefully, I'll have something for you
on that tomorrow night. In general, let me say, however,
that I think our results are going to show that there is vary
little impact to the single passes. There may be some limited
impact, and I really can't give you a feel for the magnitude
of that, as far as the back-to-back passes, on EREP. And -
I don't know, Bill, have you got anything else you want to
add to that?
MOON No, that analysis hasn't been run yet, so
I guess I would be ready to talk about that tomorrow.
PUDDY Right. I think it would be best if we Just
waited and gave you a better picture on that. But thatts
Just kind of a gross overall look. I see Dr. Hawkins has
arrived and we have been give, a go for seven more days_ and
with that I'll turn it over to him and let him make his
statement.
HAWKINS Okay, I really don't have a lot to add since
last week when we talked to all of you. The subsequent runs
and the Interval of time since we since last weekls report
is that the crew's still performing at very nominal levels
on the on all of the medical experiments. And we're seeing
the - there's there's really no significant changes from
what they have reached at about mld-point of the mission.
PAO If you gentlemen - have questions now?
QUERY I have several. First, I guess, for Don.
Has Owen ever made a 509 test run, or tralnln E run on the
ground? What was the extent of his training on 509?
PUDDY I think he has let me say right off the
bat, I'm not positive on this. To the best of my knowledge,
he has not made a test run. He is, of course, familiar with
the hardware, he has witnessed the runs that the other crew-
men has made, and I'm sure he's being thermally - thoroughly
briefed by the other crewmen, but - and he was familiar with
the hardware, of course, before - before lift-off. But as
far as I know, he has never made a an actual test run on a -
SL-III PC-74C/2
Time: 17:16 CDT
8130/73

I think the general place they do this is on the air-bearing


St. Louis, and he has not made that run.
QUERY Dr. Hawkins, I noticed they're giving Jack
Lousma's getting a lot more to eat or has things he can go
snack on if he wants to appease his hunger. And that he
was cautioned not to try to build his weight back up to pre-
flight levels. How much weight loss has he shown over the
mission and why won't you let him build his weight back up?
HAWKINS I don't recall that we've told him not to
build it up?
QUERY That - -
HAWKINS Where did you hear that?
QUERY That was specifically what came up yesterday
when I came back to him with because he had asked for more
to appease his hunger and they told him with caution. From
the surgeons, according to the CAP COMM, that he not try to
build his weight back up.
HAWKINS Well, I'm not - I'm not really familiar with
that because there's really no intent to keep any of them
from not regaining weight. They're stable, and Jack is cer-
tainly at an ideal weight right now, that it isn't signifi-
cant whether he increases his weight back up to his pre-
flight level or not. But I wasn't aware that anybody had
specifically told him not to. And they all do have supple-
mental foods, calorle-free foods which they can eat, and it's
p- up to them to - to eat them or leave them off. And Jack
really hasn't been eating much of his supplementals. Owen
hasn't either, until Just recently, and he's started eating
more. And he's really the only one that I'm aware of that's
really come back and asked for more

END OF TAPE
4"

SL-III PC74D/I
Time: 17:16 CDT
_. 8/30/73

(HAWKINS CONT'D) Jack really hasn't been eating much of


his supplementals. Owen hasn't either until just recently
and he started eating more and Owen is really the one I'm
aware of that has really come back and ask for more food.
PUDDY That may have come up with respect to
experiment protocol more than Just weight. In other words
you know not increasing it significantly so that you would
actually affect some of the experiment runs that are being
accomplished by a dramatic change in diet.
HAWKINS Well, we can't exceed what we already
allocated for them otherwise it would impact the study now maybe
that is what it was tied in with.
QUERY How much weight have the crewmen lost?
What - since -
HAWKINS Okay, let see I got them right here.
Actually the - as of yesterday morning's weights the Commander
has lost from - 4.9 pounds, and the Science Pilot 6 - 6 even
and the Pilot 5.8. Now remember those are stable and have
been these were initial weight loss and they have re - more or
less really maintained a fairly stable weight since the first
week.
QUERY Dr. Hawkins how would you evaluate the
physical conditions of this crew compared with the physical
conditions of the first crew? The last time you saw them in
__ flight.
HAWKINS Well, actually they look very very much
alike really, at this point in the mission. 1 would - I don't
know that I could identify anything here that would he much
different except for perhaps the performance in the LBNP, the
lower body negative pressure test, as you recall with Joe
Kerwin, we did see a drop in his last measurement of the -
of his flight there which was at midpoint with the Skylab-III
crews we have really not seen. And I think that comparing
him with that one Skylab-II crewman in that one performance I
would say the Skylab-III is- are looking a little better in their
response to the lower body negative test. Now from the
ergometer response they look very much alike in that - you
remember Skylab'II crew were right within the - their preflight
envelope and so are the Skylab-IIl crew.
QUERY I'd like to be reminded as to Just how much
more of the cycle riding they're doing this time. They're doing
what was suggested but I don't in fact know the percentage
more is it half again as much or - ?
HAWKINS Well, the test is the same we get that
about once a week.
QUERY I meant in terms of exercise.
HAWKINS Okay, the exercise -.
QUERY Sort of maintain their performance.
8L-III PC74D/2
Time: 17:16 CUT
8/30/73

HAWKINS The exercise is more by well by 50 percent


of - more allocated time and they are utilizing it so that
they're - their work performance through exercise is again
twice as much as the best of the Skylab-ll crew performed.
QUERY Also wanted to be reminded if they're
using any other exerciser they did take a second type of
exercise device up with them.
HAWKINS The mini-gym which is the one that they
use mostly. That's the one where the rope frayed and broke
and they had to repair that the spring tension what is called
the Charles Atlas-type exerciser is the second exercise unit
that they do use occasionally but most of their - most of the
time it's on the ergometer or on the mini-gym.
QUERY Pressing forward with that

END OF TAPE

P
SL-III PC-74EII
Time: 17:16 CDT
_ 8130173

SPEAKER - - most of the time it's on the ergometer or


on the mini-gym.
QUERY Pressing forward with that, we of course
have the testimony now that the first crew Is back. That
their arm muscles felt very soft to them when they were up
there. Do we have any testimony from the group presently
aloft as to whether their arms feel a little bit tougher?
HAWKINS No, we really haven't we really haven't
gotten a statement. Like Dr. Kerwin gave to us and that'll be
a good point of question I think we might very well try to
get an answer. That's a good point.
QUERY Dr. Hawkins, before Skylab ever started,
we were told that one of the things, we were looking for on
the medical side was that magic formula that would somehow
oranother bring the crew to the point where their cardiovascular
deconditioning will level off instead of continuing down.
Have we in fact reached that - that point?
HAWKINS Well, you might say it looks like it.
It looks favorable in the things are - are really at this
point in time, they're performance both on the ergometer and
the LBNP is slightly better than it was inltlally. In the first -
first 2 or 3 measurements that were made in this mission.
Now, you got to take into account initially the crew had motion
sickness problems and they were off on their diet and fluids
f_ and so they started at a disadvantage and a lot of that has
got to influence the performance that we were making. And
once they've gotten back on their diet and their fluid and
electrolyte and everything have been have gotten back to
normal levels, I think that a - in a certain amount of training
in learning to operate and perform within the zero gravity.
Shows that the crews are really working well within their
their base line preflight measurements. And at this point
in past 28 days, they're still going strong and it looks at
this point to me that we might expect them to continue the
same thing. But now whether this will prove to be the case
or not we have yet to - to see what the subsequent testing
will show. There could yet be further changes of a subtle
nature that will not manifest themselves until at sometime
downstream yet to he seen.
PA0 We have some questions that were called
in from KSC that we'll consider now and then come back if
there are any other farther questions. And some of these
may have been at least partially answered. One is are the
astronauts in better shape at this time than the first crew?
I believe you, -
HAWKINS That's what we just answered.
PAO Indicated, that's right. And are there
any signs at all of any cardiovascular deconditlonlng? And
if so, please detail.
SL-III PC-74E/2
Time: 17:16 CDT
8_30_73

HAWKINS No, and I think we have pretty well covered


that. No I can't say there are any specific signs of - of
decondltionlng beyond what you know as initially determined
and seen.
PAO Do you think exercise effected their health?
How much and what way?
HAWKINS Well, I can't help but believe that the
amount of exercise that they are doing which is - which really
is a tremendous amount. Does enter into the - the performance
that we're seeing within the cardiovascular testing. And perhaps
is a major contributing factor here to the - to the sustained
stable condition that we are seeing with the crew. At least
that's my personal opinion.
PAO I have a couple of questions for Don,
when is the next EREP pass and what will it be?
PUDDY Okay, our next EREP pass is Sunday and
it's track 29 and the exact magnitude of the pass, we haven't
really finalized on yet and I will get you some more information
and have that tomorrow night as far as where we start and where
we're going to end the pass.
PAO Okay, and yon said that Dr. Garrlott will
fly the backpack tomorrow. The question was when? Do you
have a time on that and for how long he will spend on the M509?
PUDDY I think it's around 17:00, but let me check
it here. Well, I said I had it. Go onto another question, I'ii
find it here.
PAO That's all that was called in, approximately
how long he will Spend?
SPEAKER The summary does in fact say 17:00.
PUDDY Yeah_ I thought that was what it was. I've
got (garble).
QUERY Mr. PUDDY, I think the answer to this is pretty
obvious. I Just kind of llke to get your words on it. What
is the - What are the advantages of having a guy who has never
test flown one of these things before, this strap on - strap
it on and try to fly around?
PUDDY I think it's Just like - any other of some
of these experiments that we've added in the Skylab here recently
due to the increased availability of time. It's one more data
point. I think in this one -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-74F/I
Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

PUDDY - any other - of some of these experiments


that we've - we've added in the Skylab, here, recently, due
to the increased availability of time. It's one more data
point. I think in this one, it's - it's a data point on
- just exactly by observation, by limited exposure to the
equipment itself and comments from another crewman. Just
how rapidly a crewman can adapt to a fairly sophisticated
piece of equipment. We felt llkej originally, that the
- the crew training - yeah, was a pretty good magnitude on
that equipment. And I think that Owen is a very conscientious
type and I'm sure he would not embark on something that he
felt he couldn't do. So evidently he feels, through observa-
tion and the comments from his fellow crewmen, that he could
operate that piece of equipment with no problems whatsoever.
And of course, we wouldn't have given him the go if we weren't
convinced that was the case. So, I think it's Just going
to be a very interesting data point on Just exactly what
type of training and the effect of that type of training
can actually be done and - in zero g as we go through a mis-
sion. And I think it may have some effect on Just exactly
how we train future crews on other space missions. They're
- as you are well aware of, on a lot of the experiments, for
instance, there were usually one crewman assigned to the
experiment as the principle, and several other of the crew-
men - maybe one other crewman that was a backup. And as we've
gone along in this mission, because of its duration, and
because of this crew's particular efficiency, we've been able
to see them pick up and successfully operate a variety of
experiments that they were not trained for, as extensively,
as we would expect, to be fully qualified to do the Job,
premisslon. And it's working out llke a charm, and this is
one more data point in that series. I don't know if that
completely answered your question.
QUERY You mentioned before that the only impact
that you expected on these EREP Passes would be if they were
back-to-back - two in a row, or going a hole. The one on
Sunday apparently doesn't fall under that.
PUDDY No, it does not.
QUERY That one would happen without any solving
of other problems.
PUDDY Yes.
QUERY Dr. Hawkins, just for further clarification,
there have been no reported - the crew's not reported any
traumas or any illnesses or ailments, no matter how slight,
other than the - the "sty in the eye in the sky" and - -
HAWKINS That's really true. The sty in the eye has
really been the only clinical problem that they've had, and

f
SL-III PC-74F/2
Time: 17;16 CDT
8/30/73

F- they have not commented on any - any bruises or anything of


that nature from the activity that they have shown.
QUERY Dr. Hawkins, as you know, thls crew is
- has said to have gotten more time than they need and have
asked for more and more work. Are there - is there anything
in the medical area that youVd llke to see them do_ or that
you're going to request for them to do in this time period?
HAWKINS (Laughter) Yeah. Let Don answer that for us.
PUDDY Well, I can say that - once that - I shouldn't
say plea, but thatVs kind of a good word_ went out because
of the efficiency of the crew_ to have additional experlments_
1 think all of the dlsclpllnes responded and we have come
up with, I think it's running somewhere now around 42 ad-
ditional items, Jim, that have been added to the mission
requirement documents_ or candidates for things weld llke
to do. And a very high percentage of these do fall into
the medical area. For instance, the body mass measurement
devlce_ we're running some repeatability runs on that_ trying
to determine Just exactly how accurate that instrument is
and - in giving us a - a good on-the-spot measurement. We've
always felt that that instrument was good as far as indicating
a trend_ but as far as how accurate it was on any individual
measurement_ there was some question. So_ we're running
some studies there where we're actually adding small mass
measurements to the erewmen_ and in the order of 1500 grams_
and having them make an additional measurement. We're doing
f that tomorrow, by the way. Just to see how those readings
do compare on an indlvldual point - -

END OF TAPE

f_
SL-III PC74G/I
Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

(PUDDY CONT'D) - - having them making an additional


measurement. We're doing that tomorrow_ by the way, Just to
see how those readings do compare on an individual point. We're
doing some insensible water loss measurements again using
the crewmen and the BMMD. We're doing some repeatlbillty measure-
ments on the SMMD. I'm sure that you've been briefed on
the hemoglobin test that we've been running; the specific
gravity. We've asked the Commander to do some of the MI31-
type work which originally pre-mlSslon he was not scheduled
for. Those are Just a few of those in the medical area that
come to my mind. But there are several in the medlcal area
that we've already done.
HAWKINS Don really didn't answer that like I thought he
was going to.
PUDDY Oh_ sorry about that.
SPEAKERS (Laughter) .
HAWKINS (Laughter) But he did a good Job though
and these are - I think weVve had our share of the extras that
time has permitted Jim and of course are a lot of other things
as I'm sure you're aware of it that we have always llke to
add to the testing but we're very happy to been able to get
these extra data points I think it's definitely going to help
the - add more validity to the data that we're getting. We'll
be better satisfied that what we're seeing is real and not
f have to guess at some of it. The additlonal I think the
additional test which was performed today was the Achilles tendon
reflex measurement. So we're got some good preflight
measurements on this and it is planned to do a postfllght. Now
then it was not planned that we would do any infllght
measurements. But I think the opportunity to do this and
hopefully I have not yet seen the video tape on thls_ but hope-
fully they will be good and it will have a - really have a
chance to measure any change from l-g to zero-g conditions
on the reflexes. Yes; we're getting some extras.
PUDDY Well, there's one other one I guess we
could also mention: that's the photos.
HAWKINS Yes, the body photos.
PUDDY We are taking some body photos that are
going to indicate the relative proportional changes in the
body shape and we accomplished some of those also today.
HAWKINS And here again we have preflight and post
flight sterometric photos for body mass measurements determinations
that we can compare this with.
QUERY On this same point it use to be - I guess
it's sort of a space flight tradition_ the pilots gritted their
teeth about a lot of medical concerns. And there was even a little
bit of unpleasantness back and forth when sometimes people

I ¸-
SL-III PC74G/2
Time: 17:16 CDT
- 8/30/73

couldntt see the need for something or became irritated for


other reasons. One gets the feeling from looking at the
transcripts on these missions that quite a different sort
of attitude prevails: that everyonets very cooperative on the
medical side and doesnt t seem to he gritting his teeth the same
way as before. Is that correct or not?
HAWKINS I think that is true. Yes very much so.
And I think itWs very very a healthy situation that we're
working in now and we're finding out the answers to a lot
of questions which we have strived to try to answer previously
and in previous programs but nothing of the opportunity
that Skylab bafords us and the crews believe me have all
been extremely cooperative. They - I think they have all shown
a very tremendous interest in the medical experiments and
basically they always been interested in their own performance
if regardless to what they say, you know, sometimes. They are
as any human being is he's interested in himself and how he performs
and what makes him perform like he does and so - this
gives them a chance once they've learned more about what
the experiments really are what they're designed to do I
think they're - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-74-H/I
-- Time: 17:16 CDT
8/30/73

HAWKINS - - once they've learned more about what


the experiments really are, what they're assigned to do,
I think they're - you know, their personal insterests have
been stimulated tremendously, and they're anxious to learn
more about it along with us.
PUDDY I think the same goes for all the areas,
the medical certainly falls into that category, but I think
you can certainly see this same trend across all the experi-
ment areas, the crew day off's included_ you know. They
Just - they can't get enough work to do evQ_ on the crew
day off.
QUERY Perhaps they've reported on it, but I didn't
hear it. Did they get the handheld photos of the drought
in Africa and the locust Swarms they were - -
PUDDY They - they will probably cover exactly
what they got today in the Evening Status Report tonight.
They did not discuss it today. The only - the only photo-
graphs they talked about at all was the fact that they, of
eourse_ did make a maneuver and did get the photographs of
the tropical depression. That's the only ones that they
got during the day.
PA0 Was there any other questions? Okay, gentle-
men, thank you.

END OF TAPE
_' SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston_ Texas

SKYLAB III- Corollary Experiments Review


Johnson Space Center
August 30_ 1973
2:02 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Bruce A. Conway, PI T-013


Donald E. Hewes, PI T-020
Jack Waitep Corollary Exp. MEt.
PAO Edward Medal

PC-73
SL-III PC-73A/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

PAO Okay, we have with us this afternoon


Mr. Bruce Conway, Principal Investigator for the T013 crew
vehicle disturbance experiment, and Mr. Don Hewes, Principal
Investigator for the TO20 foot maneuvering experiment, and
also Mr. Jack Walte from the Marshall Space Flight Center
Skylab Program Office. What we're going to do is we're going
to show some video of the various experiments, and we're
going to let the two principal investigators give an explanation.
So we'll start right off with Mr. Conway.
CONWAY Okay, the crew vehicle disturbances experiment
is an experiment to assess the characteristics and effects of
an astronaut moving around within the spacecraft. When an
astronaut moves within the spacecraft he imparts forces and
torques to the spacecraft whenever he is in contact wlth it,
depending on how violently he moves around. It can be something
to a very minor disturbance in the spacecraft attitude or if
he is moving around in a major fashion it can be something
kin to rocking a boat_ rocking a small boat when moving around
in it. And to determine these characteristics and effects,
we're measuring the forces that he is producing when undergoing
some typical motions. We're measuring the actual motions of
his body segments themselves, and also the translation of his
body center of mass. And then thirdly we're measuring the
response of the spacecraft through ATM pointing control system
telemetry measurements. The spacecraft's attitude and the
f rates at which it is caused to rotate about its axes by these
crew disturbances. To measure the motions of the astronaut
subject that is performing this experiment we use an exoskeleton
device that has potentlometers located at the various principle
rotation points of the body such as at the shoulder and the elbow,
the knees and the hips. To measure the forces we have some load
cell devices or some of the retrain gage devices that electron-
ically measure the force that is applied whenever he is in contact
with them. And then we have also movie cameras taking pictures
of the entire experiment operation so that we can use these
motion pictures to deduce or measure the translation of his
center of mass to the spacecraft while he is undergoing these
particular motions. And then of course the rate gyros and
Sun sensors onboard the Apollo telescope mount package are used
to measure the vechicle response to these disturbances.
PAO Excuse me Bruce, could we roll those tapes
please?
PAO Okay Mr. Hewes, why don't you - no I'm
sorry.
SPEAKER No, this is the TO13 tape, and it will
show the subject, who is Commander of this particular
SL-III PC-73A/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

• mission, Alan Bean, as he is - in this first sequence he will


be donning, or putting on the exoskeleton device, which is made
into a one piece coverall-type suit. This particular sequence
will show the activity he undergoes in Eettln 8 into this one
piece suit. Now you see him straightenin E it in front of him
and ready to Jump into it.

END OF TAPE

,f "
SL-III PC 73B/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

_" CONWAY ... that's the Pilot on this mission,


Jack Lousma, helping them with the final suiting up operations.
Okay, then you can see the potentiometers - at the various
joints you can see a couple of them at the shoulder, a couple
of them at the hips and one at the elbow - each elbow and each
knee that are connected to each other by rigid aluminum rods
or numbers. These potentiometers in measuring the limb
motions in turn will be - the data from these will be fed
back through mathematical equation which describe the motion
of the body as a function of the - and also the forces produced
by these motions Just as a function of the - of the particular
motions. The targets you see on there is a kind of a orange/
pink cross located two positions on the back, and there's
simular crosses on the front connected with blue bands running
around the suit. These are the photographic targets that the
cameras will pick up. And by knowing the distance between
these targets and using triangulations schemes, they can
determine the attitude or which way the body is leaning if
you will within the spacecraft and also follow it's motion
about the spacecraft when the astronaut is conducting a
particular experiment. Now, Jack Lousma and this particular
portion right here, he'll be adjusting the various segments
so that the exoskeleton in the suit can conform exactly
to AI Bean's body measurements. So, that in fact, these
potentiometers are located, for example, the two at the
shoulder do. Their center is at the shoulder Joint, and
of course, the one at the elbow being at the elbow joint. In
the next sequence coming up he will be attaching himself
to one of these force measuring units that contain the load
cells or strained gage type devices. And while he's attached
to this particular unit he will be shown undergoing some
of the motions. Now, this is a - a picture taken of the
Sun through the Apollo telescope mount, one of their telescopes,
and downlinked on the TV, and it shows the way that the -
essentially the way that the spacecraft is responding to
disturbances caused by the subject moving around. You can see
the image that is being giggled on there which is the
spacecraft moving in response to the - to the motions being
undertaken by the subject. And in some cases by the subject
and Jack Lousma undergoing translations back and forth across
the spacecraft simultaneously. You can see that if you're
trying to hold a telescope or a camera at some fixed object
hold it steady so you don't blur an image or something like
that that having a knowledge of these types of disturbances,
and being able to design control systems adequately to hold
them to a fine resolution becomes kind of important, especially
pointing requirements or the accuracy requirements to hold
the spacecraft still become more astrigent as they undoubtly
will in the future. This particular image is - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-73C/I
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CONWAY - - the spacecraft still become more


astringent as they undoubtedly will. This particular image
is of the H-alpha i experiment on the ATM, which is looking
at the Sun in a particular wavelength of light. In view of
the voice comments in the background when he was saying
"mark" is when both AI Bean and Jack Lousma pushed off simul-
taneously. And of course in pushing off they impart this
force according to Newton's third law for every action there is a
equal and opposite reaction. So their force in pushing off
puts a reaction into the spacecraft that causes it to start
moving like this.
CONWAY Bruce, the head numbers - you know this
is a very sensitive telescope and you were talking about a
normal stability of 2 or 3 arc seconds. Do you know Just what
the maximum ... you see here? It's really very little.
CONWAY Well, it's little when you think of it
in terms of normal motion. But of course when you're talking
about pointing telescopes and cameras, I think based on the
type data we're looking at this morning, we were getting
i arc minute, which is 60 arc seconds, or maybe i0 or 20 times
the particular accuracy with which they are trying to point.
So it points out the fact that either the crew has to remain
fairly still while they are performing a fine pointing type
of operation, or they have to come up with control systems
that are slightly more accurate. Now this returning to the
operation - the particular experiment, AI Bean is now attached to
one of the forced measuring devices. He have two of them, one
which he's attached to and one which would be kind of directly
along his body on the left side of the picture there. And
in the first sequence he will be undergoing some I guess some
exercises that you know could be construed or thought of as
typical things you do like if you were exercising some kind
of physical training or something. In this particular sequence
is started by waving his arms up very much like a Jumping jack
calisthenic-type thing except that his feet will be attached
to the, to the force measuring device so we can measure the
force that he is producing. If an astronaut is Just out in
the middle of the cabin not touching anything, he can move
around all he wants and the spacecraft won't do anything.
The astronaut will turn around but when he is touching or
attached to the spacecraft then the reaction force has to go
somewhere and of course that is what causes the spacecraft
to move.
CREW (garble)
PLT Okay, I'm going to tell you what to do.
Okay. Okay. The voice recording task number 3, (garble)
input is starting, the subject is Alan Bean. He's positioned his
SL-III PC-73C/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
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PLT feet in the FMU 1 restraint and Houston


is locked up. These are your fixed position tasks.
MARK_ okay he_s repeating his arm movements now for another
20 seconds.
CONWAY He's probably exerting about 8 to i0 pounds
of force by doing this particular type of exercise which of
course is transmltted into the (garble) and multlplied by
(garble) up to the vehicle. Center of gravity does cause some
rotation although not as violent necessarily as what we saw in
that ATM picture displayed a couple of minutes ago.
PLT MARK, that's 20 seconds. A1 now what
I want you to do is crouch and quickly straighten your body
and push off. Stabillze. I want you do this 5 or 6 times (garble)
Okay, Itm going to him a mark for the pushoff, stand by,
MARK. 5 or 6 times (garble).
CONWAY This is a crouch and straighten type of
exerclse_ he's still attached - -

END OF TAPE

F _
SL-III PC73D/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
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F- SPEAKER push off, stand by, mark, 5 or 6 - -


CONWAY This is a crouch and straighten type of
exercise. He's still attached to the FMU, and it's, I
guess, could he thought of as kind of a deep kneebend type
of exercise. And, again, he's probably putting a little
bit more force in there since he's throwing the whole mass of
his body into this particular motion, as opposed to Just
the mass of his two arms, as in before.
SPEAKER And we'd llke to make the comment that
the push-offs that he's making are harder than any push off
that you would likely to make in a zero g situation.
Okay. Now he's going to give something llke you would be
in a zero situation. The typical - -
CONWAY And here he's repeating the same type of
motion except a little bit more slowly. This is the type
of force you would probably expect if he were getting ready
to push off from one wall to translate somewhere else
within the spacecraft. So, of course, the forces won't
be quite as great. Now he's unstrapping himself from the
force measuring device and he will translate or soar back
and forth between the two force measuring units. He'll
go hands to - feet to hands. He'll push off with his feet
and land with his hands and even do some gymnastic type of
things, where he'll push off with his feet, do a flip and
land with his feet on the other force measuring device.
SPEAKER From FMU 1 and soar to 2, and then
_-_ reverse the process soaring four times in four laps as
rapidly as practical for 30 to 40 seconds. Okay. On my
mark he's going to soar from FMU 1 over to FMU 2.
Stand by, mark. He touches FMU two, he turns around, his
feet are on FMU two, he's standing by to - want me to get
that cable for you? Let me get over there and clear that
cable for you, AI. Mark, soar from FIMTJ two to one.
CONWAY And of course, with two force measure
units, we measure the force that he pushes off with and the
force that he lands with on a particular maneuver.
SPEAKER Correction - from one to two. Now he's on
FMU two, he's getting ready to soar back to one. Mark. He
hits FMU one. Okay. Now those were pretty fast maneuvering.
He's doing some more normally sp - normal speed now. He's
at the FMU one and now he's going back to FMU - correction,
he was on FMU two and now he's back at FMU one. Okay.
Now these are normal zero g push offs as opposed to the
earlier ones which were more forceful than you would
normally use. And he, - Okay. Now he's back at FMU one.
Now he's going to go foot-to-foot. Those were all foot-to-
hand. He makes a 180-degree rotational lands feet up (garble) on FMU two.
SL-III MC-73D/2
Time: 14:02 CDT,
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P- Now do that again, soaring back to FMU one. There he goes.


He hit his feet on FMU one, Just llke a cat, lands feet
first. He's going to do one more, off, MARK, FMU 2, reverses
his position, soars mark back to FMU 1 and lands feet first.
Now those those were hard ones. He's going to give you a
couple of nominal zero g push offs, foot-to-foot. There
he just made one to FMU number 2, he's pushing off at 2
now. MARK. Mark to i. Landing on his feet, pushing off
as you would normally do in zero g, very easily and very
gently. MARK. FMU 2. Now going back to FMU i. MARK.
Okay, that takes care of the soaring between 1 and 2.
CONWAY Now in this next sequence, the - both Jack
Lousma and A1 Bean will be soaring slmulaneously, A1 Bean
between the two force measuring units, and Jack Lousma will
have a - somewhat greater distance to travel and he'll
be going back and forth essentially across the diameter
of the particular forward compartment of the workshop from
a point which is near the food lockers where they store
their food and on the opposite side, the film vaults, where
the film for the various cameras

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC73EII
Time: 14:02 CDT
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CONWAY - - from a point which is near the food


lockers where they store their food and on the opposite side
the film vaults where the film for the various cameras aboard Skylab
are stored so A1 Bean has about a distance of 9-1/2 feet to
travel and Jack Lousma has about twice that much about 18 feet
to travel. And this next sequence is the sequence of
the - was being undertaken when you saw that picture of the
Sun a few minutes ago the next sequence is the violent more
violent type of motions that cause the spacecraft to giggle
as it was doing on the picture from the H-ALPHA telescope.
We've seen about halfway through this TV sequence.
SC Stand by. MARK. They Just stored now, they
Just landed down, turn around come back (garble).
CONWAY The commands are being called down the
marks are being called down by Owen Garrlott who is seated up
in the MDA up at the ATM control panel. HeWs watching the
television image of the Sun while they're undergoing this and
callin 8 out MARKS to them and telling them when to push off
their respectable cases within the spacecraft. And I believe
this is just about to wind up this particular of the tape.
SPEAKER Types of forces that they impart when they
are doing pushoffs like this you can get as high as 25 or 50
pounds depending on how hard he's punching in or pushing off
or coming into a - one of the force measuring units. In addition
when he's restraining hlmself or when he lands and grabs hold
_ of a hand hold at the edge of the area he also puts quite a
bit of torque or bending type of motion into that particular
sensor plate which of course is also transmitted into space-
craft motion in response. Okay, now this is just a close up
on some of the pushoff in the soaring type of maneuver.
PAO Okay, now we'll go to Don Hewes now if
we could have the tape of the. TO20_ please.
SPEAKER Maybe I ought to say just a little bit
about the T020 before we look at the tape.
PAO Okay.
SPEAKER Basically the TO20 experiment is one of
two maneuvering units experiments onboard Skylab both intend
to study the cap -.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-73F/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8_30_73

_ HEWES - - tape. Basically, the TO20 experiment


is one of two maneuvering unit experiments onboard Skylab,
both intended to study the capabilities of the astronaut
to maneuver, basically, to perform activities outside the
spacecraft. But the Skylab workshop provides - is providing
us the only opportunity to study these type of systems.
Of course, there were some attempts in the Gemini program
where the handheld unit was - was operated for a few brief
seconds. And the back-pack propulsion system, which is more
or less a grand daddy of the M509 experiment - was sent up, but
was not operated due to some of the problems. The current
experiments on Skylab, of the M509 experiment, which is
sponsored by, I believe the Air Force and Johnson Spacecraft
Center. The TO20 experiment, is sponsored by the Langley
Research Center, and is integrated through Marshall Space-
craft Center. The - my experiment, the TO20, is concerned
with somewhat different type of maneuvering unit, in order
to explore various systems that could be used. Of course,
back when people were learning how to fly, there were all
kinds of different configurations developed and as a part
of the evolution of aircraft, certain types proved better
and more useful. Well, we're seeing the same thing happen
here in space except maybe on a little more compressed scale,
because we don't have the luxury of time in space that we
do here on Earth. So, TO20 experiment uses a different
approach, rather than using up the Back for a propulsion
P" system, where typically, we've been using life support
systems of the backpack breathing communication systems,
we decided to look at the concept of having a propulsion
system mounted between the legs and operated by the feet.
Now the hands are quite useful - the legs - in space. The
legs are considerably less useful in most things we'll be
doing, except you can see here in the previous experiment
that you do use them, but basically outside the feet haven't
been used much. So we felt that it would be nice to put them
to work. Of course, we use our feet in driving automobiles
and flying airplanes, so it's nothing new. So, this
system is designed on the basis of using the feet to control
the maneuvering system as opposed to using the hands, as the
M509 experiment is. The thrusters are configured such that
they will produce translation capability in the up and
down direction, and we'll be able to torque the subject
around all three axes. We cannot translate with this parti-
cular system fore and aft or sideways. Now, this was a -
done purposely to study, more or less a minimum type of
maneuvering system, as opposed to one that's got everything
built in. We're trying to take a look at a simple system,

f_
SL-III PC-73F/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
8130173

having more or less a minimum type of system, much like the


handheld maneuvering unit that Ed White used in zero gravity.
There is no stabilization system on this unit, and it uses
Just the cold gas, nitrogen gas that comes from aboard the
spacecraft. It's stored in a pressure bottle. It's the
same one we use on M509. We shared the pressure bottle.
Now, we also carried a battery, but it was not necessary
for the actual operation of the system. We carried i_ on-
board primarily to operate the camera that we used for our
data taking purposes. Our only quantitative data that we're
measuring is taken from the cameras. We're using the astro-
naut, himself, to evaluate the system, plus the cameras.
Basically, the feet are strapped to foot pedals, both left
and right feet are used simultaneously to make the control
(garble). If he wants to translate in what he senses
as his down direction, he pushes his feet down. If he
wants to translate up, he pulls his feet up. If he wants
to pitch face forward, he turns his ankles, pushes his toes
down, both toes. If he wants to pitch up, he pulls his
toes up. If he wants to roll and yaw, he puts in similar
type of coordinated controls. Now, this is somewhat dif-
ferent from the normal type of control and it's - it does
require some training. It is basically, a mechanically
slmple system which sometimes makes it more difficult for
the man to operate, but it is mechanically a simpler system,
r and one - perhaps it might have a higher level reliability,
although it might make the astronaut work a little bit harder
to do it. This is almost a paradox. If you try to make
it mechanically simpler, you make it more difficult. Now,
the handheld unit was very simple, but it tended to be quite
a bit more complex to operate. Now, perhaps we could roll
the tape now and we could see it inside the workshop. Now,
remember that this is an experimental unit. It isn't meant
to be a polished, operational system. We're trying concepts.
Now I believe you'll start off by seein E A1 come through
the - the hatchway there. This was done just a few hours
ago and I've had only one chance to view this sequence, so
I'm not quite sure Just what's coming up. We found in our
first run, which was performed about a week and a half ago,
that we had a problem that was common to many of -

END OF TAPE

i
SL-III PC-73G/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

SPEAKER run which was preformed about a week


and a half ago, that we had a problem that was common to many
of the experiments and that is the problem of restraining the
astronaut to whatever equipment it is that he wants to operate.
The ergometer or bicycle used in the medical experiments or
the I think the negative pressure system had some restalnt
system problems, the M509 had some restraint systems problems.
A - and we had some problems. But we have seen here is our
second run. We repeated the run after we worked out some
fixes on ground. We used - determined what straps where on
board and we configured a new harness system. We teletyped
the information up to them and A1 and Jack figured out what
we'd said, in the instructions and they configured it and we
now see them - putting on the little demonstration here to
show the - the new strap system. Now, A1 said this was quite
a crude, we didn't really intend to make it pretty because
we had to make do what was on board but we did find it very
effective. In our first run, A1 found that the unit was -
the harness was coming loose and the unit would flop around
between his legs and he Just couldn't get his feet on the
pedals to operate them. And so we developed this set of
straps which would more less cinch him down tighter onto
the unit. And I believe if you look closely after he gets
up closer to you, you'll see that the unit is not moving
when he is moving his feet up and down. The unit is more or
F less fixed to him or vlce verse it, he is fixed to the unit.
You'll note that there is a back pack on here and that's where
we are carrying the propulsion gas on this experimental unit.
If we were building an operational system based on this
concept, the propulsion system would be all built with - beneath
his seat, the bottle will be down there and his back will
used for - as life support system. Now you see there's a
harness strapped over his shoulder, that was part of the
normal harnessing arrangement. You can't quite see the -
the harness that was modified. We did install 2 straps. You
can see his feet moving up and down, just a little bit there.
But you can't really see what - what's going on. Now he
purposely put in a yaw control and you can see he's
spinning around. Right you can hear some of his comments.
Now you got a fairly good view of his feet. There you'll see a
couple straps, there's a strap coming up from his left foot,
up to the back of the seat, that was one that we added, another
one on the other side. And we added some other straps to
the backpack down to the seat. That is a roll control input
that he's made there.
SL-III PC-73G/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
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SPEAKER Note that his hands are free. He can


go over and grab a bold of something to provide a _estralnt.
This of course, is one of the features and number of unique
features in this concept. The fact that his hands are free
to use for whatever purpose, if he wants to carry some equipment
he can do so. If he wants to grab hold, I think you'll see
him grab hold. Yeah, he's grabbed hold of the - thatts the
oh the unit that put the solar umbrella out. I think the
first - the first one that went out there. As I say there
is no rate gyros stabilizations system in there. We do have
the electrical power but that's strlckly to operate the data
camera that we have installed in the unit between his knees.
We have an overhead data camera_ that's mounted Just about
where the TV camera is, although Owen Garrlott is holdlng
the TV camera, but our data camera is overhead. So we will
be able to - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC73H/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

HEWES - - Garriott was holding the TV camera


but our data camera is overhead so we'll be able to correlate
the two cameras to tell what actually he's doing.
SC He's going out - he's going up to see what
going up there. (garble) cameras - show business.
HEWES During our maneuvers now these maneuvers
do not represent the - those that are used as part of the
experiment this was just what he - he's doing his thing there
to evaluate how effective the straps were and he found out that
the straps - the fix that we sent up was quite effective.
PLT Those outriggers they got there are holding
down to the seat better instead of riding bucket bronco.
HEWES Now of course you see here's one of the
problems with just a single act of thrusters you see he's
kind of backing up here and he has no translation capability
in that direction so what he has to do is pitch himself around
to try to stop that motion. Of course you might say that this
is a deficiency but we're trying to determine is it necessary
to have the thrust capability in all directions. This is an
experiment you see; if we knew all the answers we wouldn't be
doing experiments we'd Just be doing the demonstrations and
that isn't the function of doing research work. Hopefully,
we're right when we do an experiment but sometimes have to
gamble in doing experiments and find out what - how far we can
go I would say that if we were to start out today and design
an operational maneuvering system we would not use single
_-_ thrust capability such as we have in this device so this device
has served its purpose to help us evaluate the need for minimum
amount of thrust capability.
PLT ... which I'm pointing to right there is a
hlgh-pressure bottle full of nitrogen we can refill those bottles
very readily up to about 25 or .._
HEWES Alan Bean has commented that - his ability
to control his attitude is - works out very well with this he
has no problem in controlling his attitudes. Primarily that
of translation and of course yo u see that's where we have the
minimum control capabilities in translation.
PLT You can see the cable going into the battery
which operates the ...
HEWES Now it's relatively simple task really of
adding some more thrusters on here to provide the translation
in the fore and aft direction. So we don't see that's it's
too much of a problem of going from here and going into the
development stages to develop an advanced maneuvering system.
However, I think we have from - not only from this experiment
but the 509 experiment we are beginning to more less catalog
our experiences - our knowledges so that when we do go to designing
a maneuvering systems we may end up with something that's perhaps
a combination of the concepts that you see here in this unit and
SL-III PC73H/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73
f_
those of the backpack type of system that was looked at in the
M509 experiment. Much of the'inconflguratlons are going to
depend upon basically what we decide we want to do with
maneuvering units of course we really have no requirements
established in our missions at the present time for maneuvering
units. We were looking at them as well what can we do with them
you know - what are they what should they be what can we do
with them and then we think in terms of missions applying them
for the missions you've got to start someplace.
PAO Okay, thank you Don. Jack Walte who is
the Marshall Center Manager with the Corollary Experiments
has a few comments. We'll call on Jack at this time and then
we'll field your questions.
WAITE Well, Just one comment on Don's experiment
TO20, you know they - you sa} an unsuited mode. Don has both
the suited and unsuited mode also the nitrogen bottle you saw
on his back is a rechargable bottle 3,000 psi nitrogen we do
recharge that in - from the nitrogen system in the airlock
module. Also there I'm - most people have concern about
dumping that much nitrogen in the cabin this is carefully
planned so that first of all we purposely let the cabin pressure
drop down far enough below the relief valve pressure of about
5-3/4 psi so that this will not carry us to the relief
valve pressure of them and we manually control the addition
of nitrogen to always keep a proper partial pressure of nitrogen
when we're doing this or the M509 experiment.
_" SPEAKER I might add to that relative to the
bottles that they were able to operate for I think over an
hour on Just that one charge of gas so you see we -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-731/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

_ SPEAKER - - experiment.
SPEAKER I might add to that, relative to the bottles,
that they were able to operate for, I think, over an hour,
on just that one charge of gas. So you see, we aren't talk-
ing about large quantities of gas. And I looked at the pres-
sure within the OWS before they started and afterwards from
the console, and you Just couldn't see the pressure rise.
It wasn't over a tenth of a psi, which is within the resolu-
tion of the measuring system, so that really doesn't represent
a large quantity of gas. Excuse me, Jack, go ahead.
WAITE All right. If - you know, in the case of
509, in the suited mode, you're talking about a somewhat
more I think that's about all that I can think of on the
TO20. On the TOI3, as Bruce was saying, you know, especially
as we think of large stellar telescopes where we're talking
about pointing accuracies in order of magnetude better even
than the few arc seconds that we have on the solar experi-
ments, we are quite concerned about extreme pointing accurl-
cies and we feel that the data from TOI3, Bruce's experiment,
will be extremely helpful to us. I'ii Just mentioned Just
briefly, we will be trying every few days, as principal
investigators are available to have a brief press conference
with the principle investigators are available, and since
Bruce and Don were going back, I asked them if they could
- could plan for this press conference this afternoon. And
we will be trying to arrange a number in the future. So,
F we really appreciate you coming in. I just mentioned very
briefly, there - since, the crew's efficiency, after about
mission day 14, has just been outstanding. And, after -
between mission day 17 and 37, the EREP opportunities are
very minimal, so we've had a real opportunity to run quite
a number of the corollary experiments this mission. We -
we have operated up until this time, 25 different corollary
experiments, and we've completed the planned objectives on
eight of those. On some of those, we're going above the
planned objectives, because we have been able to gain - the
crew has been able to gain a little time. There are only
five experiments that we have not yet operated, and we do
plan to operate all of those and may possibly be able to pick
up some that were planned only for SL-IV, on SL-III. Of
these 25 that I've mentioned that we've operated to date,
ten of those were student experiments. We've been very
pleased with the results there and as the students are
available, we will be trying to have them in for a conference
with you. So, I think - ready to turn it over to the floor
for any questions they might have. Ed?
SL-III PC-731/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

PAO Okay. Thank you, Jack. Howard?


QUERY On the TO20, when will you plan some suited
runs on this mission?
WAITE I believe it's about a week from this coming
Tuesday. Mission day 46 or something like that. I get
quite confused about what day it is. We have so many de-
signations for days, but I believe it'll be a week from
Tuesday. This will be in the fully suited mode in which
we operate both - on an umbilical, and then we disconnect
the umbilical so we'll be completely free. We have a problem
in working inside the OWS with a space suit. To be completely
free, we have to disconnect the umbilical and then we're
using some small bottles that are strapped on and they're
they're rather short duration. So, we don't have too much
time, actually, to operate free. Of course, we would like
to operate outside, you know, I mean, that's where we think
we're going with this thing ultimately, but we're doing it
- experiments within the workshop so that we've got controlled
conditions and this is what you really need to really get
down and study a system. We - we don't know all there is
to know about it.
QUERY Are you going to use it on SL-IV, also?
And is there any chance to make any changes to it between
- between the mission?
WAITE Yes, there's a chance. It's somewhat sllm,
but we do see one modification that could be worked into
_ the system. Of course, we know, we want to modify the straps,
but we think we can basically go with the straps that we
have there. We'll just probably clean them up a little bit.
But there is some interest - interest in providing a better
back support. But the basic unit, we don't intend to modify.
Our basic objective was to - to have two test subjects per-
form the same types of maneuvers. Now, one aspect of the
experiment that I didn't really get in to, and it's - is
almost as important, if not

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-73J/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

r_ SPEAKER - intend to modify. Our basic objective was


to have two test subjects preformed the same types of maneuvers
now one aspect of the experiment that I didn't really get
into and it's almost as important if not more so than what
you 've seen here in the workshop is what we do on the ground
to simulate. And that effort has been carried out and we're
going to make direct comparisons to see how - how faith -
faithfully we've been able to reproduce the conditions down
here on earth. And of course obvlously we didn't faithfully
reproduce the problem with the harnesses so we've learned
something by our mistakes and we'll be able know the simulators
are going to be a little bit tricky in evaluating the restraint
system, so this gives us some clues the - of course we're also
interested in how controlable these devises are. How blg the
thrusters should be and things of that nature. And hopefully
we can validate simulators so in the future work in developing
the systems and training crews for them. We'll- We'll know
Just how effeeted the simulators can be. To do that type
of work. Better than trying to send - go up in space and
do all of our developments work up there, our training, that's
rather costly.
PAO Any other questions? Go ahead
QUERY On the T013, is that the first time you've
done on this mission or have you done it previously and do
you plan more?
SPEAKER It's only plan for the one time on this
f particular mission. We had a run, just this morning, which
consist of the type of task that you saw today and also
monintoring the solar picture on the ATM screen and then two
weeks ago today some additional parts of the experiment were
perform which used I guess less violent motions to try to help us
refine our mathematic equation representation of the human
body. These consisted mostly of a restrain or in place type
motions, simple ones that can be model accurately with a simple
equation.
QUERY Gyro, the three maneuvering units, which
one has proved to be the best and that may not be a fair
question right now but under these certain substances right
now? -
SPEAKER Well I can understand why you are asking
it, because we are all interested.
SPEAKER - You see really it's a different situation
there, for example, the M509, I think you have heard Major Ed Whitsett
on 509. See on that, that 509 is really basically a spacecraft
it is controlled moment gyro stabilization or rate gyro
a second system, rate gyro or it can be operated manually.

/--
SL-III PC-73J/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

_ SPEAKER - So it is a different type system. In


this case, I would feel like you know as Don pointed out
their evaluating very simple - simpllfied translation you
know, there with the thrusters and also keeping the hands
free, so I think - I think as far as talking about the system
you know, we are evaluating really a propulsion system and
control system in Don's case and with either system you
could add control movement gyros, rate gyros stabilization
of whatever you might want there. Now the hand held maneuvering
unit, is basically that we use for Gemini. So that as ~ as
Don said the more simple you make it, usually mechanlcally
or in design, usually the more difficult it is for the operator.
Then I guess the hand held unit would difflently be the most
difficult to maneuver itself with.
SPEAKER The control capability, control abillty
piloting handling quality as we refer to it. We referred to it.
You would rate the I think hand held unit as the most difficult
to operate. The T020 foot controlled unit, as the next and
then the M509. Now, what really what you are asking me to
do let me bring it down to earth here, lets put one of those
deluxe automobiles, the Cadillac or the Mercury Marquis
whatever, Lincoln and compare it with a Jeep or a motorcycle.
You see, they're each built for a certain requirements and
so if your trying to compare motorcycle against a Lincoln
Continental, how do you say which is the best if your going
out over a rugged mountain trail, I'm sure you wouldn't want
f a Cadillac. But if your driving down the freeway from Houston
to New York City_ I don't think you'd want a Yamaha. -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC73K/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

(SPEAKER CONT'D) - - but if you're driving down the freeway


from Houston to New York City, I don't think you'd want a
Yamaha motorscooter. So you see where - what we're trying to
do is learn about the various aspects of - each one of these
systems is a complex really - we're going to solve this quite
complex combination of different of elements they've been put
together in certain different ways. And we're trying to learn
by looking at these individually and going back and looking at
the various combinations of the different systems. What really we
would end up for doing a particular activity now these
activities could be quite varied in space and they might be
something that's just simply going from one spacecraft to
another Just banging back and forth between one and the other
transferring cargo for instance. Where you might want one
where you want to go from your spacecraft you've got to get
away from the reflective light off of the surface of the space-
craft. You're doing som - you know - elegant telescopic measurement
of Mars or something llke that and you've got to get away from
the reflective light so you've got to go several miles out
and stabilize yourself get yourself steadied down, and here you
are out there all by yourself with your little telescopic
instrument with this maneuvering device that's - now you're a
spacecraft. Now that's something completely different you see
from something that you're Just going back and forth carrying some
heavy cargo maybe from this space shuttle to the your orbiting
laboratory you know - we're thinking in the future now. So
you see we've got to fit our knowledge that we're gaining from
these various systems into the requirements that are going
to come up for future missions, and that's what we're trying to
do that's one of the functions of Skylab is to learn how man
is going to fit up in space - what we can do - what we can't
do what our problems are.
PAO Howard?
QUERY Bruce, when the ATM is being operated on
this mission how quiet the other two crewmen have to be?
SPEAKER Kind of hard to say, since we haven't been
able to catalog their exact motions when it's going on. They
shouldn't be undergoing any vigorous activities llke for
example pushing off the walls I don't know if you saw the
TV of them running around the ring lockers on the first manned
Skylab mission. This type of activity definitely can put
attitude disturbances into the spcaecraft which makes it
d_fficult if they're trying for example take time exposure
or something like that. Translation activities like we Just
saw on the TV a few minutes ago where two crewmen were going
back and forth or even one crewman going back and forth can
cause disturbances of up to an arc minute which again
SL-III PC73K/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

60 arc seconds which is about i0 to 20 times more error than


they'd like to have to be - even with the control moment gyro
control; so normal housekeeping functions if they're down there
perparlng a meal, if they're operating one of the experiments
that doesn't require a lot of moving around, taking hand held
pictures out of the window for an example this type of thing
certainly doesn't put enough into the vehicle - it's the gross
translations that - and exercise type of activities that can
upset the apple cart, so to speak or rock the boat too much.
QUERY What about the ergometer can they run that
while the ATM is going?
SPEAKER I don't know whether they have run it or
not don't really have any data taken showing when they ran it -
you know if they ran it in conjunction it shouldn't be quite
as bad running the ergometer as it is pushing back and forth
since essentially it is a closed system they're not putting
in that force there into the spacecraft.
QUERY I have one more for Jack. When can we
expect some of the space manufacturing or metals processing
experiments on this flight?
SPEAKER Yes, our plan initially was to run the
M512 series on SL-I/II and then we had none scheduled for
SL-3 and then we were going to run the M518 series- you
know which are Ii different experiments in the zero group -g
flammability on SL-4, We - that's still the plan; we don't have
the crew trained for M518, although Jack Lousma did participate
in the preliminary designing review, the critical design
reviews. He was very instrumental - in all of our experiments
we work very closely with the crewmen in laying out controls
and displays so Jack is very familiar with it and it's a very
simple experiment to operate so we have no concern -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-73L/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
8/30/73

SPEAKER very closely with the crewmen, in laying


out the controls and displays. So, Jack is very familiar
with it, and it's a very simple experiment to operate, so
we have no concern, actually, about operating it this mis-
sion, even though they haven't been trained. The only con-
cern we have, at the present time, or we could go ahead
with it, they're they're are two high-powered outlets in
the MDA, and one of them was for the - M518 furnace, and
the other was for the - the video tape recorder. Now, our
gyro 6-pack, that we - Ed is taking up another one, and so,
not to have conflict with the video tape recorder would
require pulling extension cords in from the workshop through
the alrlock module to - in order to simultaneously operate
the video tape recorder in M518, so I we haven't got that
resolved. I'm trying very hard to get some 518 runs on this
mission and I haven't yet been successful because of this
problem on the extension cord. See, the 518 experiments,
generally, take quite a long period. You know, a typical
one will be maybe a 4 hour - 4 - 4 to 5 hour heat up cycle
and maybe a 4-hour soak, then and some 17 hours for cool-down.
And the only power requirements you have for cool down is
just to powerup your telemetry for your temperature measure-
ments, your thermocouple system for your temperature measure-
ments_ but but that period of time we can't go without
the video tape recorder, so we're trying to work that. I
hope we can run it on there, because we have some very good
space manufacturing experiments that were sche - that are
scheduled for SL-IV that I'd surely llke to move up.
PAO Very good. Any more questions? Okay, be-
fore we leave, I'd llke to announce that Dr. Royce Hawkins
will be on hand for the change-of-shlft briefing. I believe
it's scheduled for 4:30, but we'll check that. He'll be
on hand for a medical review. Thank you very much, gentlemen.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
August 31, 1973
5:24 pm CDT

Participants:

Don Puddy_ Flight Director


Richard Koos, EREP Officer
Bill Mayes, PAO

PC-75
SL-III PC-75A/I
Time: 17:24 CDT
8/31/73

PAO Okay_ gentlemens today we have with us


Flight Director, Don Puddy and Dick Koos is with him and
after their statement, we'll take questions with the micro-
phone. Okay, Don?
PUDDY Okay, be fairly brief tonight. Today's
flight plan went more or less as programmed. We had the M509,
as I talked to you about fast,night, with Owen doing the
flying. And that went off very well. We did ask him how
he felt about flying 509, and he said "well, he had very
good luck with the the CMG and the rate gyro modes", much
as we expected. He said that he did fly two runs in the
direct mode, which is a little more critical, from the
standpoint of pilot control, because you don't have the
stabilization associated with the CMG in the rate gyro modes.
And he said he noticed a significant improvement in his
capability to control it on the second run. So, I think
we did get some feel there that experience is certainly a
valuable asset on that type of thin E . I think also that we
can certainly say today that we went a lone way in proving
that using standard-type controls3 and I'm sure you all have
been well briefed that the controllers that we are using
on the 509 equipment are essentially Apollo-type translation
and rotational hand controllers. That, with those, and
with pilot experience, without a lot of formalized training,
as lon E as a crewman has had a chance to observe the hard-
ware and observe other people flying it so you can do an
acceptable job, and I think Owen was pretty well pleased
with that. Everything else went as scheduled. We continued
to work on the condensate system. We're still having a little
problem, and we're I think we're in a position where we
think we're getting in a - ice into the dump port. We do
plan on trying to flush out the sytem one more time this
evening, getting a good Delta-P, then tomorrow, going into
a full-blown dump. This is where we actually pull a vacuum
through the solar - the anti-solar SAL, much as we were
doing the first part of the mission, trying to force all
of the water out of the tank, and see if that corrects the
problem. We will also be checking to see whether or not
the heat exchanger plates that I talked to you about last
night, could be causing the problem. We're goin E to dis-
connect those and leave them out of the circuit and see
whether or not that enables us to maintain our Delta-P.
And, the step after that is to - there is a possibility that
we have had a - a heater failure in the probe assembley,
that actually goes into the waste tank. And when we're
dumping the water in there, we're actually getting some ice
SL-III PC-75A/2
Time: 17:24 CDE
8/31/73

/_ build-up, and this is what's causing us not to be able to go


ahead and pull the full Delta-P. And if that is the case,
we do have a completely redundant assembly that we can
install in some 45 minutes to an hour. And we would go ahead
and take those steps and probably try to accomplish that
late tomorrow or early the next day. So that's about it
from the standpoint of today's flight plan. From the stand-
point of tomorrow, let me correct something that I said to
you last night. We will be starting o_r EREP passes tomorrow,
and tomorrow is EREP pass number i0. It will start about
15:06 Zulu, and will run through approximately 15:39 Zulu,
as far as the data take is concerned. We start in South
America, going over Argentina, Uruguayp and Brazil. Our
interest in South America is primarily centered on agriculture,
forestry, and geology studies. Then, of course, we'll move
out into the Atlantic, where we're primarily interested in
studying the ocean currents, move into the Inner-troplcal
converdant zone, and then from there into Africa, where we
have several sites in Senegal, Mauretania, and Mall, where
our primary interest is on natural resource studies, and
regional mapping. And I Just might mention to you, this
is the second - what we call, you might call - -

END OF TAPE

F-,
SL-III PC-75B/I
Time: 17:24 CDT
8/31/73

/_ PUDDY - - regional mapping. And I just might


mention to you this is the - the second what we call - you
might call foreign EREP pass that we've had. If you can
remember, our first one was on earlier in Skylab-3, when
we went over the pass that took us from Thailand down through
Australia. Other than that, we have a M092/93 run with the
commander being the subject. Couple more S019 runs and of
course around 7-1/2 hours worth of ATM viewing. To give you
a more or less an over view of what's going to occur on day
37 which is day after tomorrow. Which is the crew day off,
we will again be running a - EREP pass at ATM and will again
have one of the science conferences that I'm sure y'all have
already been briefed on the type of thing that we're doing,
where we have the various scientists tag up with the crew
and have more or less a generalized bull session and how it
goes type thing. Looking - looking a little farther on down
stream I think one of the significant things that you would
be interested in is the fact that just about every day from
now on until the end of the mission. We do have an EREP pass
we have a total of 17 additional EREP passes that we would
like to accomplish between now and the end of the mission.
And of course, we will continue on with our - our -ATM viewing
hopefully we'll have another one of the CALROC launches on
day 39. And I think that's the highlights at least as far
as we've gone ahead with the summary flight planning. Each
day of course, we continue on with the handheld photography
and y'all have any detail questions on that type of thing
Dick can give you more or less an overall feel for it and
type of - type of sites that were trying to cover so it will
rationale behind them. And let me Just point out that this
is something that we have added to Skylab-3 primarily because
of the additional crew time and it is something that we
certainly plan to do and had plau to do on a little more
formalized basis during Skylab-4. I do also have and y'all
are certainly welcome to come up and take a look at them after
the question period is over, I do have a couple of photographs
I thought that y'all might be interested in of Anita and
Arabella's webs. So you're welcome to take a look at those.
Dick do you want to cover any thing or do you just want to
open it up for question here.
KOOS No_ go ahead. Ask question if you'd like,
I don't have much to say.
PUDDY Okay.
QUERY On the EREP pass, when you are over
Africa, is there going to be any connection with that data
take and the drought, that is the area that - been hardest
hit by the drought, isn't it Mali and Mauretania?
SL-III PC-75B/2
Time: 17:24 CDT
8/31/73

PUDDY Certainly interested in the drought area


there, but our information indicates they have been getting
a little rain recently so l'm not sure just exactly - you're
going to see drought area as far as what we're taking but it
it's not as critical right now as it has been in the past.
That is strictly form the standpoint they have been getting
some rain there recently.
QUERY What are the EREP track numbers tomorrow
and on Sunday?
PUDDY Track number tomorrow is 25. The track
number on Sunday - you may have that riBht in your hand
Dick -
KOOS It's either 39 or 40 - it's the last
part of track 39 and first part of 40 and it's very similar
over the similar type country what we're goin_ to do tomorrow.
Or as an alternate we might do a - track 43 which covers the
United States.
PUDDY I think, let me say one thing I'd talked
l'd think I mentioned last night that we were - we're looking
at possibly doing track 29 as our first track and basically
we - we have switched over to track 25, primarily because of -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC75C/I
Time: 17:24 CDT
8/31/73

PUDDY - - we're looking at possibly doing track


29 as our first track and basically we had switched over to
track 25 primarily because of weather conditions right now
over the States the fact that we do have an opportunity later
in the mission to cover the sites that are on track 40 - 29
and this is going to be more less a last opportunity of this
mission for us to catch this particular track as far as
catching it in daylight from now it's going to be in darkness
so we elected to go ahead and try an accomplish track 25 at
this time.
KOOS Yea, that's right we for the next 4 days
we'll have lighting from the west coast of South America all
the way over to the Mediterranean and south part of Europe
so that's why we're trying to take advantage of that long
swath to get as much in one pass as we possibly can. It
also happens that we're over the United States in daylight
and you can see by the map over here that we run out of day-
light at the end of these passes round the northern part of
the United States, We're doing these over the United States
very late in the day right now and it's probably not =he best
if we waited we have better opportunity plus the fact the
weather is not real good.
PUDDY Just now moving back on range as far
as good daylight CONUS coverage.
QUERY Is there any opportunity to get Christina
tomorrow and are there any other handheld targets on schedule?
PUDDY I should mention that today we did use
the Hasselblad to get some photographs of the Christine and
also the crew put I believe it's 3 or 4 minutes on the video
tape recorder of Christine. As far as tomorrow is concerned
I think we've got that also scheduled for tomorrow with the
Hasselblad.
KOOS You should have Christine in the window
in the wardroom window for about 5 minutes tomorrow.
QUERY Do you know about what time?
KOOS Well let's see in Greenwich mean time
it's about 18:40 that's about 1:40.
PUDDY Uh-huh.
KOOS (Chuckle) I didn't bring my list to what
comes up - well they're optional whether handheld target
- sites we have tomorrow.
PUDDY We got the locust swarm and also got the
handheld photos of New Mexico and Arizona and some in
Colorado.
KOOS And those are geology.
PUDDY It wasn't near as heavy tomorrow as it
was today.

r
SL-III PC75C/2
Time: 17:24 CDT
8/31/73

KOOS I might add - -.


QUERY Where is the locust swarm?
KOOS Tt's in Africa. Hold on a minute. I
think I have a map l'm not sure.
KOOS Well it I'll give you the coordinates I
don't have it blocked out here. From i0 to 35 north and 25
to 60 degrees east. And it's here in Africa in the northwest -
east corner. And I might say some of this handheld the
question that you first have to ask is not I mean there is a
question before you get to the scientific or the objective
of it really you have to de - wetre trying to find out if you
can in fact see that and detect it. There's a kind of basic
thing that we're trying to work out as what is the best
procedure to use if you - about a week ago we got some real
good comments from Owen Garriott about using the - trying to
use the universal mount they have and put in a polaroid camera
in the window taking the shoe and taking picture s and see if
you got it and then he can evaluate for us on board whether
he accomplished what we're after then he could - he would
know right away whether he had to try it again on another
opportunity. And this is the basic kind of thing we're
trying to develop for possible use in the future.
PUDDY I think we'll get a lot of refinement in the
techniques and the mechanisms that we'd like to use for
Skylab-IV.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-75D/I
Time: 17:24 CDT
8131173

PUDDY - - I think we'll get a lot of refinement


in the - in the techniques and the mechanisms that we'd llke
to use for Skylab-IV, and that's going to be one of the
primary advantages of the work that we're doing now on
Skylab-lll. We'll have a good portion of that learning
curve behind us.
QUERY What country did you say that the locusts
swarm (garble)? Is it northeastern - -
PAO Yes, it's the northeast part of Africa -
I don't have the hold on, let me look at this.
QUERY Egypt?
PA0 Sudan.
QUERY Sudan?
PAO Yes.
PUDDY We can probably get you all a list if you
would like to, of Just exactly - a very short descriptive,
synopsis of each one of these sites if y'all would find that
useful.
QUERY Yes. I think we ought to have that every
night is possible. Especially with the EREP coming up.
We'd llke to have that every night (garble).
PUDDY Okay, we'll make arrangements to get that
to you.
PAO The night before.
QUERY In studying Christine, - I want to make
sure I understand something, that - that taking the pictures
of her development, you are going to be able to apply this
to watching - to knowing about storms in the future. Is
there anything that you know right now about where she's
going and what she's doing, just by having them look out
the window? Of course, you don't have any data back on it
yet, really. Right? You don't have any pictures back?
FUDDY No, that's correct.
SPEAKER Noj the information we're getting comes
from the hurricane center in Florida.
PUDDY I think you can say right now that our
- our main advantage of looking at Christine is merely a
another source of data, using various type of instruments
to supplement the work that the National Hurricane Center
is doing, and that will be, of course, the primary intent
of that data, will be to provide that information to them,
and let them use that in their continuing analysis of
hurricanes and tropical depressions and this type of thing.
Itts also, of course, very interesting for the crew to -
from a manned observation standpoint, to be able to watch
one of these things as it - as it continues its development.
As far as anything of immediate value, I doubt if there's
SL-II] PC-TSD/2
Time: 17:24 CDT
8/31/73

anything that we're going to be able to do here that the


National Hurricane Center wouldn't be able to go ahead and
forecast. The crew's comments indicate that they are seeing
what they callp the classical tropical storm cloud pattern,
and indications such as that. That's about the extent of
their crew - crew comments. I think the rest of itWs going
to have to be more or less what the National Hurricane Center
can get out of the actual photographs.
KOOS Well, the storm is not even yet in range
where they _an send reconnaissance aircraft into it to find
anything out about it. I guess what - I guess I speak in
an ideal terms, but in the future, I guess, if you had
someone in a space station who was qualified to observe
and evaluate and you had instruments on the help - on board,
to help him, you'd certainly be in a lot better position
to track something llke this than we are now.
QUERY Are the weather people coming over and
taking a look at the video tape recording - or pictures
that we've gotten down of Christina so far? Are they
interested enough to come over and take a look at the ones
we've gotten down?
PUDDY As far as I know, the only information that's
heine relayed - of course, you know, we have the - air
weather service people located with us to help us do the
flight planning for EREP, so on, and so forth, and I'm sure
the information that they're seeing on the VTR is being
relayed to the National Hurricane Center. As far as whether
or not dupes of that tape are being mailed down to them,
cannot really answer that question. But, I'm sure there is
a verbal exchange of the information, with the weather
experts taking a look at it, InterpretlnE what they see,
and forwarding that on down to the National Hurricane Center.
PA0 Any other questions, gentlemen? Okay, thank
you.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 2, 1973
6:00 pm CDT

Participants:

Don Puddyj Flight Director


Richard Koos, EREP Officer
Mary Fitzpatrick, PAO

PC-76

f •
SL-III PC-76A/I
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

PAO All right gentlemen, we have with us tonight,


Flight Director, Don Puddy and Dick Koos, and they'll start
with their statement.
PUDDY Okeydoke. Let me reverse the order of the
way we normally do this and start out with a brief discussion
of tomorrow's flight plan first. And let me let Dick tell
you a few words about EREP pass number 13, which is one of
the big items on the agenda for tomorrow. Dick?
KOOS Well, it's - another one of those passes
that like - similar to what we've been doing the last
couple of days. It crosses South America and then goes
across the Atlantic, up over Spain, and into Europe. And it
has very similar objectives. This pass also goes across
Paraguay, and of course, across Brazil. The main interests
in Europe, I think most of them are geological and regional
objectives regional planning objectives. It doesn't cover
as much land area as we've been covering in the last couple
of days, but it's very similar to that. I - the reason
we're taking these opportunities is because we can get for
a Z-LV - for a long Z-LV pass, we can get as good a return
off these foreign passes as we can, get as many sites as
we can work in. And we have lighting oppotunities during
the next few days to go all the way across South America
and up into Europe. These are pretty long passes, 33, 37
minutes is what they've been running. I don't honestly
know, I haven't had a chance to check how many sites we've
got on tomorrow's pass, but it's about the same thing as
they've been running in the last day or two. I think we
have about two more days of opportunities like this where
we can - where we still have opport - lighting over South
America and then we'll probably be - well, we will be going
over tracks over the United States. Because we have lighting
now that'll take us across the U.S. and then the north
Atlantic.
PUDDY Okay, any questions on that?
QUERY Dick, could you tell us, since this is
the first time in Europe, could you tell us some of the
specific targets in Europe? For seeing Spain and those
areas?
KOOS Let's see, I've got a map here and I can
give you the task site numbers. I don't know, the Pl's names
and I'm not prepared to give you a whole lot of detail. Well,
I can just show you - maybe that's the best way to do it here.
It's 54, 55 comes up through - over here - we're more
to the west, and we're coming up - and we're going to pick
up this - this site here.

f
~ !

SL-III PC-76A/2
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2173

: PUDDY 20, 28, 21.


KOOS Right.
PUDDY Well, I - the key thing that I think most
of the maps you have will show track 54 - 55 and that's the
track that we're on. I think the map outside is probably
a better one to really view that on than the - on the map here.
QUERY We have the code numbers and you can get
the code numbers off of here and we can look up - we can look
them up in our book. That's what - that's what - -
KOOS Oh, okay. 20, 28, 21, 209, 806, 618, 826,
271, 822. Those are a pretty good represent - I'm not sure
about all of those and I haven't looked at the weather - their
latest weather prog to see if we'll be able to pick all of
those up.
QUERY Okay, at least it gives us a feeling for
just which ones (garble)
KOOS Yes, it - okay, the data take is bounded
by 80 degress west longitude, way to the - off the west coast
of South America, and we'll go to 17.5 east in Europe.
PUDDY Okay, in addition to the EREP pass that we
have tomorrow, we also have the medical MO92, MITI run, with
the science pilot as the subject, and our continued ATM viewing,
we have presently scheduled around 7 hours and 15 minutes
worth of activity. That's kind of a brief overview of tomor-
row's activities. We do, of course, have sone SO19, SO6 - -

P END OF TAPE
SL III PC-76B/I
TIME: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

PUDDY - teen minutes worth of activity. That's


_ just kind of a brief overview of tomorrow's activities. We
do, of course, have some SO19, S063 work also. Today's
activities, of course, are one of the - typical of Skylab III
crew day off. We sleep in late for about an hour and then
get up and go fairly heavy all day long. We did have an
EREP pass 11, and EREP 12 today. And coming up this evening,
which I'm sure, which I'm sure you all are going to want
to listen to, we do have the science conference, and weVll
be going through the biomedical area_ the corollary area,
and the ATM areas. We also had around 6 hours of viewing
timep and you probably copied, we had a couple of C-class
flares today, which the crew was very happy in viewing.
You might also note that based on the information that we
have at the present time_ indicated to you the first part
of the week, it looked like the Sun was going to be fairly
active for about a week. Now, we have updated our estimate
on that, and it looks like the Sun is going to continue to
be very active for the next two weeks and I specifically
would request that to get the latest information on how
the various zones are - on the Sun are affecting the pro-
duction of flares and things that you listen to the ATM
discussion tonight. I think it's going to be a very
interesting discussion of what an active Sun is and what
we can expect it to produce, As far as pass ii today, we
started out at 14:27 Zulu, and the pass itself was 33 minutes
long ending at 15:00 Z. The ground track itself was
3940. We started over the west coast of South America and
ran through the North Coast of Africa and into Sicily. As
Dick has indicated to you, it was similar to Saturday's
passp and also to tomorrow's pass, from the standpoint of
coverage. In southern Chile and Argentina, we're primarily
looking for information to prepare new accurate maps. That
area to date hasn't been as accurately mapped as people
would llke for it to be, and they feel that the information
that we're going to obtain on Skylab will permit us to do
an accurate mapping Job. Also we'll be doing some geological
mapping and minerals exploration work in Northern Argentina.
Moving out again as we did on Saturday's pass to the inner-
tropical convergence zone_ we were taking multi-spec
photography and radiometric measurements over the inner-
tropical convergence zone. The primary emphasis there, of
course, being on gaining better background data for weather
forecasting. Into Africa and Mall, I think, the primary
purpose of the data there is for temporal and spacial changes
primarily in from the standpoint of fostering economic
development of that particular area of the country and

f_
SL III PC-76B/2
TIME: 1S:01 CDT
9/2/73

, although they have had some rains recently, of course, that


area has been very subject to drought in the past. In
Tunisia, I think the primary things that you are looking at
are the vegetation, soil types, erosion characteristics of
the land, and of course, in Southern Italy, the volcanic
phenomena, and related Eeograph!eal characteristics. Also
today, we did some handheld photography, and I promised
you all a few days ago - we didn't have a talk last night. You
might want to browse through them, but here are a few copies
of the - take care of those a few copies of the handheld
photography sites. And before I get into Just exactly what
we did today, let me say a few words about the handheld
photography, more or less across the hoard. Basically, l
think, right now we're somewhere around 29 sites that we're
looking at, not all of them have been photographed at this
particular point in time. I'm sure some more will be added
and if you all have copied alr-to-ground, you'll note that
there's quite a bit of discussion going on between the ground
and the crew as to Just exactly

END OF TAPE

/F
SL-III PC76C/I
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

_-- PUDDY alr-to-ground, you'll - you'll note


that there's quite a bit of discussion going on between the
ground and the crew as to Just exactly what we're striving
for, what they can see, so on and so forth. And let me
point out that the handheld photography per se was not an
objective - a detailed objective, that we specifically set
out on Skylab-lll to accomplish. However, due to the increased
efficiency of this crew, we found that we did have some
extra time and we did, of course, plan on accomplishing
these objectives during Skylab IV. So, what our primary
intent of doing this on Skylab-lll, - it is more or less
multipurpose. Of course, the data that the crew gathers
as far as photography itself, can be utilized. We're still,
to this day, gaining useful information off of the photographs
that were taken during the Gemini and during the limited
portions of the Apollo missions when we could get half-way
decent Earth photography. So, we're still going to he able
to use it from that standpoint, but probably more important
for Skylab-lll, itself, is the fact that we're gaining a
chance to use various instruments, the IE, the binoculars,
the human eye, and the various cameras that we have on board,
the Hasselblad, the Nikons, to investigate over a variety
of sites, different types of sites, just exactly what we
can do in the way of hand-held or possibly, I guess I could
use the term bracketed. We may come up with a bracket
requirement photography. We have already set into work a
_- specific task team that is trying to work out the maps the
Skylab-IV crew will carry onboard. And I think the comments
that we're going to get from the Skylah-lll crew are going
to make the maps much more meaningful, for instance. It
may very well be that the comments that we get from the
Skylab-lll crew are going to indicate that you have to have
a few targets leading up to the one of primary interest.
We already know that the crew - as - when you talk about
things like locust swarms and things like that, as we sus-
pected, but they went ahead and made a stab at it. There's
probably no way that they, themselves, are going to be able
to pick that out. We know that there are - we know that
as far as scheduling photography, that, in a lot of cases,
you more or less have to have an overall feel when you
go up there of what you would like to accomplish, because
there's a lot of times you come over the site, and it they'd
only known that they were to get that site, the weather was
clear, but if we try to always schedule if from the ground,
with the delay in weather forcasting data and things like
that, it's cloudy. So, let me just kind of - without going
into too many more words, say, that I think there's going to

/-
SL-III PC-76C/2
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

tremendous benefit in addition to the photography itself.


There's going to be a tremendous benefit to the gain that
we're going to be able to get from the standpoint of efficiency
and more realistic - I shouldn't say more realistic, but
more planned photography of certain of the areas that we
would like to cover. And we're going to continue this,
and I would expect that you will hear more on air-to-ground
as far as just exactly an operational evaluation. Of course, it
will be a debriefing item, too. But we are starting quite
an effort right now to begin to perfect that thing and to
make sure that we've got all the questions that we can to
this crew. Today, as far as handheld photography, I think
the - the two items that we were primarily interested in
were the Mexican earthquake. We were using the Nikon camera
with the 300-millimeter lens. And, of course, I'm sure
you're all familiar with the - with the earthquake and the
human loss of that occurred on that. We had originally given
the crew the coordinates of this and they do have maps on-
board that didn't exactly pinpoint the area, but we were
able to give them the - the block. And today, the site was
very cloudy, and we don't think they - they did get very
good photography of the earthquake. But, of course the thing
that we're after there is the - -

END OF TAPE

r
/
SL-III PC76D/I
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

(PUDDY CONT'D) - - and we don't think they did get very


good photography of the earthquake, but, of course, the thing
we're after is the information from a historical standpoint as
far as landslides and anything that can be detected in a
earthquake type area. Also, we did some photos of the
tropical depression in the Yucatan channel. This is the one
I don't know whether y'all have had a chance to hear about
or not but it's one that's rapidly developing as opposed to
Christine. This one looks like it is entering an area where
there can be a very rapid build up and we were taking some
oblique photos to more less get an idea of just exactly the
charcterlstlcs from an oblique angle and trying to get some
idea of the structural formation of the storm at this particular
stage and hopefully we'll be able to continue to do that
over the next few days. I don't want to upstage the weather
reports but as far as we know right now this one is predicted
to intensify and probably should be heading up towards the
Gulf Coast and I guess the latest - at least the home grown
weather progs indicate that you're talking about possibility
of - you know if everything goes as predicted in the land fall
Somewhere - where is it - around the 4th-Sth of September.
So we'll - -
KOOS Fourth. 4th of September I believe.
PUDDY Sop we do expect this storm to intensify
and we - of course we're going to try to continue to look at it.
As far as the o_her accomplishment that we got into today from the
standpoint of actually EREP viewing, we did take a look at
Christine and I think that from just as a synopsis of that I
f_
thin_ from the data that we got there we're pretty well
G_venienced based on our weather people's interpretation of
jJ_hat that it is a dissipating storm. We were asking the crew for
....
J their visual observations of where the eye was with respect
_" to the cloud cover. And it looks llke the eye is definitely
over to one side with a cloud cover more or less trailing it
which is indicative of a dissipating storm. Dick, you want to
say anything else about that particular pass. It was about a
5 minute pass.
KOOS No we asked the crew to observe to see
if they could detect - areas of concentration and they
described it pretty well being on the southwest side of the
storm and the description we gave to the weather people in
Miami and they said that pretty well fit with the satelitte
pictures that had been taken yesterday late in the day. The
storm was really not - didn't change much in the last 24 hours
and they were going - they were for some reason I think some
technical reason there wasn't any early - any satelitte pictures
available to them early today so we Just made availahle the
crew's description. And they're working at it into their
forecast.
SL-III PC76D/2
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

PUDDY We - we also had a solar interlal pass


over Paraguay using the Earth terrain camera and we obtained
from an oblique photography of the - pardon me if I don't
pronounce it right but the Gran Chaco area I believe it's
called huh -
KOO Gran Chaco.
PUDDY Gran Chaco - the primary purpose here of
the obllque photography since our interest here was topographical
mapping we can use this in combination with the normal vertical
type photography to get - since we do get high resolution
from the Earth terrain camera. We can use that in conjunction
with the normal vertical photography to enable us to provide
better toposraphlcal information of that particular rather
remote -

END OF TAPE
SL III PC-76E/I
TIME: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

PUDDY enable us to provide better topo-


graphical information of that particular, rather remote,
undeveloped area in Paraguay. Other than the EREP passes
and the handheld photoEraphy today, of course, we Bot the
(garble) showers and as I mentioned to you the science
conference and again about 6 hours of ATM viewing time and
that's the crew day off. So with that, let me open it up
and see if you all have other general - all right, let me
mention one other thing before we do that. We didn't get
a chance to talk yesterday, but we had talked briefly some
on the condensate system as far as the spacecraft itself
was concerned. I mentioned to you that there was a chance
that we were forming some ice in the probe that ran from
the large water holding tank down into the waste tank. We
had done just about all the troubleshooting we could on that
and finally elected to go ahead and pull that probe assembly
and - even though the indications on board indicated that
the heaters were working, we decided that the problem was
definitely that we were forming ice at the tip of the probe.
And therefore were not being able to deplete the contents
of the tank. We changed out that probe assembly, went
through one of our full blown dumps, which means that we
actually pulled a - pressed all the water out of the tank,
using a 5 psi atmosphere, and then pulled a vacuum on the
tank in order to allow the bellows to come all the way back
to one end, which is a procedure that we normally like to
follow and the one we started out trying to use at the
first of the mission and you have been briefed many times,
we had some sort of a slow leak somewhere that we've been
chasing since the early part of the mission. I forget the
exact day. Well, we - io and behold, when we got every-
thing all hooked back up and we went ahead and performed
our dump, we also have been able to maintain a constant
Delta P since that time, so unless something changes, we
ought to be good with our present configuration until the
end of the mission. And we suspect that one of the dump
QDs that we previously thought we had checked wasn't per-
fectly seating on one of the - on the O-finE, the same
surface that is the sealant when it's connected is also the
surface that seals the QD when it's disconnected, and we
feel like that must, for some reason, either had some
contamination in it, or just wasn't completely seating. That
has now reseated and is holding and the word today is, hands
off the condensate system. We want to leave it just exactly
like it is and should have no further problem with it, as
it now stands. That's all I have, unless you all have
some questions.
SL 111 PC-76E/2
TIME: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

QUERY What time tomorrow will they have a chance


to look at these two storms again? Delia and Christine.
PUDDY Let's see
KOOS You got a cal tom?
PUDDY If you want to pull that off, I got a
pad, I think_ as far as the chances that we have remaining
today. Or I did have. Let's see, on the tropical depression
itself, I think for today we have passed up all of our
opportunities. They were all on the 21:00 Z category. From the
standpoint of tomorrow, there should be several chances to
view both Christine, and what did they name the other one?
Delia?
KOOS Yes. It's in'the neighborhood of 20 to 22 Z.
Looks like about 22 that's 20 - 20:30 Z. It's probably
when we go over the Gulf and about - I guess it's more
like about 19 or 18:50 Z when we'll go over where Christine
is located. That's a pretty rough -
PUDDY It's a rough estimate, based on a
CAL COM. We can certainly get PAO to provide you - we can
get them the information. They can give you an exact update
as to when we'll be crossing that area. And I'm sure you'll
hear it o n air-to-ground, if you want to wait until that
time.
QUERY Just before we came over here. On the
last pass, I guess, I think it was AI was talking. We
seemed to have a little trouble with that condensate system.
Was there anything - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-76F/I
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73

QUERY - - I guess - I think it was A1 that was


talking - they seemed to have a little trouble with that
condensate system. Was there anything - maybe I misread
what they were saying, but they seemed to be a little con-
cerned, which was about a quarter to 6 or so.
PUDDY No, I think you - think - I wasn't copying
all the conversation, although I was in the control center.
I think they were having e discussion on the - on the air
circulation system, not the condensate system. And what
they were - we had been noticing a little degraded flow
through one of the circulation ducts, and what they were
talking about there was the possibility that maybe one of
the pumps had slowed down, or possibility there had been
some debris collect on one of the screens in that duct, and
was blocking some of the flow. It had nothing, whatsoever,
to do with the condensate system. And they are just trying
to ask the crew various questions to see what, if they could
find outp in the area of that particular problem. It's
nothing serious, it's a degraded flow, but it's nothing
that should cause us any problem. If it is a fan we have
replacement fans.
QUERY Was it today that you went over Tunisia_
or is that tomorrow, on the EREP pass?
KOOS Today.
QUERY Today. And you were looking for mineral,
- or geological features there? This is a question I believe
has been answered before, but all of the countries that
Skylab pictures are taken of have NASA and - has sought
permission to take pictures of them? And so there's an
agreement between each of these countries? When Mexico - 1
remember during SL-II - Mexico - Mexico newspaper had an
obje_ction. It was not a government objection, hut I thought
of this - just because of the of the difficulties in the
Middle East.
PUDDY That's true. In all of the areas where
we are taking - the task sites that we're taking our EREP
data over, have a PI, that PI, has, of course, obtained the
permission of his government - turn - that's all been -
been brought back through here, and is considered to be a
valid requirement. And, I think the primary reason that
you must recognize that this would be the case, is the fact
that, a tremendous amount of the value, at least, during the
initial phases of Earth resources is the fact that you collect
ground truth data in conjunction with the airborne data.
In other words_ there are either - either teams actually on
the ground, that are getting detailed information about the
same type of thing we're studying, or there are low-flying
SL-III PC76F/2

/_ Time: 18:01 CDT


912/73

aircraft, or possibly high-flying aircraft that are collecting


data that we can use for comparative purposes. And the Pls,
themselves, are not located here, in general, except for
the HATS area, or the Houston test site area. They are
located, in general, around the particular tests sites, and
their job, as more or less outlined in the overall EREP plan,
is to gather the ground truth data where they possibly can
on these individual sites. So it's a coordinated effort
between the Skylab vehicle and the crew itself, between the
PIs and between the governments of the two countries. But,
we do have approval of all of the countries that we are
flying over and taking the EREP data. I don't - Dick, do
you have anything else?
KOOS No, it's - -
QUERY Did the double EREP pass have any effect
on your batteries, or any of your power - cause you any
power problems?
PUDDY Absolutely not. We have - I don't know
whether you've been briefed or not, there are several items
that we can do as far as electrical power. One of them,
of course, is we can shift more of the load over to the
alrlock module battery system, since, as you've been
briefed, there is a degradation in the ATM batteries over
what we expected at this particular point in time. We also
have the capability of powering down quite a few of the
heaters that are not required on a continual basis via ground
command, and we also have a fairly tremendous capability
in the order of 700 watts, as a matter of fact, that we
can power down - that the crew themselves can power down,
and the lights that are not required, circulation fans that
are not required, hut are for a limited period of time,
but are certainly something that we'd like to have going
when we can. Things of this nature. Today, we did do the
ground powerdown, which is worth around 450 - 400 watts,
and we did do the - what we call the re g adjust, or trans-
fer a little more of the load over to the AM system.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC76G/I
Time: 18:01 CDT
9/2/73
zf _

(PUDDY CONT'D) - - and we did do the what we call the


reg adjust or transfer a little more of the load over to the
AM system. On that we did not in any way shape or form
perform - get into any crew powerdown if I remember right
the maximum discharge on - we have two batteries it's
according which Beta angle you're at but we have two batteries
that normally lead - right now at the Beta angle we're
at they lead by approximately 2 amp hours in the depths of
discharge we take those batteries and the maximum discharge
on those batteries was they were 7.9 amp hours which meant
the others were running right around 5.8, 5.9 and we - the
criteria that we've set up as far as managing the ATM power
system is that we can take those batteles down to 9 amp
hours. So we're a long way from that and still had a lot of
powerdown capability to go, so, basically I think in summary
we do not expect to have any problems with the planned EREP
passes from a power standpoint for the remainder of the
mission and this includes the single passes or the back-to-
back.
QUERY When you say remainder of mission - all
the way through Skylab-IV.
PUDDY Yes, that's correct. Should say the
remainder of the program.
PAO Don, we have a question here from Bill
Johnson CBS asking about tonight's TV and which of tomorrow's
activities will be on TV, the llve or dumped?
PUDDY Okay, as far tomorrow is concerned we
have 5 minutes of ATM TV there's being put on the VTR. We
have 25 minutes of TV which is TV46, and I'm going to have
to pass, I don't remember exactly what TV46 is. We can
certainly check it here in a second and find out for sure.
And we have probably be another 8 or i0 minutes of TV
off of the ATM that will be downlinked part of it over
Texas and part of it over Goldstone. Today and I'll be
honest with you I'm not sure whether they're golng to get
to it just because of the magnitude of the activities been
going on during the day. Today we had given the crew the
option of 30 minutes worth of TV on the VTR and when I left
they had not - they had not started that TV. We did have
3 minutes worth of TV down-link over the ATM earlier this
morning around noon today we had 3 minutes more down-llnked
over Mila and tonight they have 3 minutes that's being down-llnked
over Goldstone. But I'm sure the item is primary interested
in is the crew's optional TV and I just dont t have the status
and the crew hasn't commented on it but we did authorize a
30 minutes of that TV today.
PAO Is there anything else? Thank you.

END OF TAPE

F •
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston _ Texas

Skylab III Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 3, 1973
5:19 p.m. CDT

PARTICIPANTS:

Don Puddy, Flight Director


Bill Mayes, PAO

,if
PC-77
SL-III PC-77A/1
Time: 17:19 CDT
9/3/73

PAO Gentlemen, we have Don Puddy the off-going


Flight Director with us today and he'll give a statement
and then we'll have questions.
PUDDY Okeydoke. Today we had the 13th EREP pass
just run over it with you very briefly. Data was from
80 degrees west longitude to 25 degrees east longitude.
As I indicated last night, this covers South America, the
Canary Islands and northern Italy. In Argentina we were
primarily interested in the regional mapping and the minerals
exploration. Also did some work on soil salinity and there-
fore livestock and agriculture resource investigation. In
Brazil, south and central, it was the - primarily interested in
crop studies in that area and east - the iron ore studies were
primary concern. In Paraguay, as we've mentioned before,
our primary concern is trying to get enough information there
to get new maps in that area. In fact, there was an article
the other day, they just found a new river in Brazil but it
wasn't anything we'd done but I noticed they're still finding
new features in the world. From there we went and looked at
the Humboldt Current which is off the south coast of Chile
and also runs up through the Canaries off the coast of Africa
to look at the water and thermal conditions there from the
standpoint of nutrients and the various thermal conditions
that might be indicative of good or bad fishinE conditions.
In northern Italy, where we finished up the pass, we were
primarily looking at the volcanic charaeterlstlcs and evalua-
ting the snow melt and surface water supply. Also today we
did some of the S063 photography, which is UV photography,
over Africa; did this in leiu of the Earth terrain camera.
Today we also had over 7 hours of ATM work and another in
the some 24 plus scheduled passes of UV stellar astronomy
and our major medical run on the science pilot. For tomorrow,
we have scheduled two EREP passes; EREP pass 14, which is
going to be over South America, Africa and Europe again.
It will be the last one of these passes before we move into
the stateside passes day after tomorrow. One interesting
thing that we will have and that is we will be recording
TV during a good portion of the data take. The data take
itself extends from 14:41 through 15:10 and we will be record-
ing TV from 14:58 to 15:10 which is going to catch the
European portion of the flight. Also, the second pass is
from 18:02 to 18:10 as far as the data take and we're looking
at Christine. We do have the NRL cal rocket scheduled and
I'm sure you've been briefed on that a couple of times. This
is where we're actually taking solar viewing in conjunction
with a high-altitude test probe launched from White Sands,
New Mexico. We have TV-47 scheduled, which is some work on
S019 and have a medical run on the pilot and some S019 passes
f_ SL-III PC-77A/2
Time: 17:19 CDT
9/3/73

PUDD_ scheduled tomorrow. I imagine one of the


things that y'all are probably interested in is what are
we going to do if a hurricane decides the come into this
area, so let me Just say a few words about it. If for some
reason this area should become the predicted spot of a hurri-
cane and it looks like we would have weather conditions of
sufficient magnitude!to put the control center out of opera-
tions, we do have an'alternate area of operations at Goddard.
Basically, what we have there is a voice capability, although
not quite as many loops, very similar to what we have here
at Houston. As far ss the to

END OF TAPE

.f
j_

SL-III PC77B/I
P" Time: 17:19 CDT
9/3/73

(PUDDY CONT'D) - - although not quite as many loops,


very similar to what we have here at Rouston. As far as
the telemetry data that we can receive we have a computer
that can be used to process data and we do have (garble) TV type
formats. The only restriction up there the fact that we do
not have as nearly the same number CRTs or TV tubes that
we can display that data on, so we're limited in that
aspect. The command capability insetead of being done
straight from here you know here we go ahead either dial
up a command or in some cases where the command is used
very frequently, we just have a PBI and that is transmitted
through our computers here out to our remote site and then
up to the spacecraft. We're essentially forced into doing
that type of an operation through calling the site is what
we call mode 1 commanding. We tell the M&O at the site to
dial in a certain command and then he initiates it from that
particular site, so it's you can say ItWs done by voice and
then through I thlnk from a particular site. As far as the
team is concerned at the present time, our thoughts on that
would he that we would deploy a single team because I don't
think in general the Center here - if it would ever put out
of commission it wouldn't be out of commission that long.
I guess since we're going off duty, wetre the - we're the
selected team for that. Right now I the lastest advisory
and I'm going back over and check on it, but the last advisory
does indicate that there is a possibility that it could come
over as far as the Galveston-Freeport area and it could have
a landfall sometime as early as 7 o'clock tomorrow morning.
I think that there is just something we're just going to
have to wait and evualate and see what the weather condition
turn out to be. That's about all I have - well I take it
back, I would llke to say a few words, if I could, about the
Sun. Basically, just to kind of give you a recap of solar
activity, had one of the solar PIs draft up some data for me
and from August the 12th to the igth, the Sun was extremely
quiet. During the period of the igth through the 26th, the
activity began to pick up and as I briefed you last night,
right now we consider what we have as a very active Sun for
this particular portion of the ll-year Sun cycle. In the past
couple of days we've caught at least four flares and we
originally started out on the Skylab program knowing that
this was going to be a period of a fairly quiet Sun. We
were very hopeful that we could obtain at least the rise
characteristics of a single flare. Weld have felt very happy
if we'd been able to accomplish that. To date, we have caught
several flares in that particular portion of their development.
I think we've also, as you probably noted and been discussed with

/
SL-III PC77B/2
Time: 17:19 CDT
9/3/73

you, we've also recently been giving the crew more opportunity
to more or less freelance on the ATM operations and this crew,
this particular crew of course, was very - and so will the next
crew as far as that goes, was very interested in the ATM obser-
vations that Owen, specifically being a having a solar background.
And I think we have found out that they have done a tremendous
job as far as taking advantage of the capabilities in solar
viewing that you have from space. They've done an excellent
job of improving the types of solar viewing that we might
schedule for the crew and in also enhancing actual capability
that we expected to be able to have - to expected to be able
to have of solar viewing itself. So basically in summary on
that, I think that right now a good general statement is that
we feel that the - for the period of time that we're at, in
solar viewing as far as the solar cycle itself is concerned,
we have been extremely fortunate during this Skylab mission
to have obtained the variety and themagnitude of data that
we have. That's about it so let me open up and see if y'all
have any questions.
QUERY Don, if you had to go through Goddard,
how many people would this involve on your team and how
would you get there? You got a plane standing by?

END OF TAPE
_. SL-III PC-77C/I
Time: 17:19 CDT
9_3/73

QUERY - - Goddard, how many people would this


involve on your team and how would you get there. Have yon
got a plane standing by?
PUDDY Yes, we would go by plane and in general
we have this - our procedures have this blocked out and
more or less two different time frames, the manned portion
and the unmanned portion. Since right now the area we're
in, of course, is manned, we would go up there with a com-
plete operations team from a flight-control standpoint.
This is to imply that we would take the entire group of
MOCR operators, all the experiment officers, the EGILe,
the GNS, the entire group. We would not take the - in
general, take the backroom operators. And as you're well
aware, we have 4 to 5 baekroom operators usually supporting
each one of these MOCR positions.
QUERY Can you give me a number on that?
PUDDY Yes, I can count them up for you here.
We've - this is all done per published procedures. Go
ahead with another question and I'ii look that one up as
we go.
QUERY I wanted to ask you about - this seemed
to be in awfully good humor today, you know, wisecracking
and quipping back and forth, how would you characterize
the crew now after 38 days in space, their general attitude.
PUDDY I think that in general, it's pretty hard
to detect any noticeable difference whatsoever. There was
a period of time there where you could detect that they were
working very hard developing the old efficiency curve that
we've all talked about. Once they got over that hump, which
was early in the mission, I think they've continued to ex-
hibit very similar characteristics as far as what we could
detect over the voice loops. Their cooperation has been
tremendous, as far as all of the requests that we have made
from them. The other day when we got into the condensate
system, I know the Commander was very prone to want to take
that probe assembly out and we were a little reluctant_ we
wanted to make sure that we'd gone through all possible
areas where the problem might lie, other than the probe
before we took that step, although there was no real reason.
We just wanted to make sure that we didn't unnecessarily
take the probe out. And he showed amazing constraint as
far as I'm concerned on that type of thing and in fact, he
probably - if you've looked at the air-to-ground transcripts
i think his only word once we said, "You're go to take the
probe out," was, "Hooray." But I think they have - they've
shown excellent spirit throughout, excellent cooperation

f
SL-III PC-77C/2
Time: 17:19 CUT
f_ 9/3/73

PUDDY as far as the inputs from the ground. I


think there has been an excellent interchange; we all make
errors. And the ground and the crew both have admitted
these errors when they've been made and we both have worked
towards solutions which we feel make the - this operation
and the Skylab IV operation better and that interchange has
been very open and very free over the loop and I Just can't
say enough about the cooperation that we've had with the
crew. And I think their morale is still very high. I think
they would stay there for a long time if all that was feasible.
The number of people that are on the standard emergency
control center team are 26. The mandatory people that we
have to take up there in order to conduct any type of opera-
tion as far as just pure crew safety is 12. Now, when I
say the standard team, I'm talking about the capability of
going up there and doing just exactly what we're doing today.
Running a full-up mission.
QUERY You would Just take 12_ is that what you're
trying to say.
PUDDY No, no, no. No_ no. We would plan to take
the full 26.
QUERY What are the ground track numbers for the
EREP passes tomorrow?
PUDDY Let's see, we have got 68, 69 for EREP 14,
and it's - the VTS track is 71 on EREP 15.

END OF TAPE
f_ SL III PC-77D/I
TIME: 17:19 CDT
9/3/73

PUDDY The VTS track is 71 on EREP 15.


QUERY Don, are you running much of a risk or
would it be anymore - I don't want to - not sure I want to
say dangerous - running the mission from Goddard. There's
just as many - as much back up - back stop there? Is there
any more danger than running it from here?
PUDDY Well, I don't know how is the best way
to answer that question. As far as As far as communication
with the crew, no. There is no increased risk, because as
you're probably well aware, most of our circuits go through
Goddard anyway. As far as telemetry processing and display
capability, certainly when you - you've been over in the
Control Center, so you know how many displays we have. We
have to restrict the amount of data that we can look at at
any one given interval of time, so therefore there are certain
things that could not be seen on telemetry unless we are
very, very judicious in exactly how we cycle through that
data. But I feel that we've done some work on that today
in putting together those displays, having the operators
take a look at them, figure out how they would cycle through
them, and I feel like from that standpoint, even though there
is that particular limitation, I don't see that much increased
risk. It Just means that we've got to conduct our operations
slightly different, in order to be able to view all of the
data within a shorter period of time with less displays. I
should say within the given time, with fewer displays. As
far as the command capability, as you are aware, we've had
some command computer faults at several remote sites since
Skylab lifted off, excuse me, let me go back and say we have
had some problems here at Houston, where we have not actually
been able to transmit the commands out of the building since
Skylab lifted off, several instances of that. And we have
done the mode 1 commanding several times through various
sites, and we have not had any problems whatsoever. So in
general, I would have to say, no, I do not think there is a
greatly increased risk as far as running the operation from
the emergency Control Center. It does not have - I have to
admit, however, it just doesn't have all the luxuries that
we have here. You're a little more crowded, not quite as
much display capability.
PAO Are there any other questions now?
QUERY Have you got any feel for what the sites
are tomorrow on track 14?
PUDDY Yeah. It's pretty much the same area
that we have been covering. We're hlttlnE, of course South
America, where, if I remember right, we're going up a little
more along the central part of South America. But it's
~ /

SL III PC-77D/2
TIME: 17:19 CDT
/_ 9/3/73

covering almost the same areas we've been looking at. Africa
and Europe. We're hitting Morocco, the Spanish Sahara,
Northern Sardinia, and finally into Italy.
PAO Anything else now.
PUDDY Tf not, it's been enjoyable gentlemen.
See yon in a few days. We're going to take a few off unless
we go to Goddard.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 5, 1973
4:27 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Charles Lewis, Flight Director


Darrell E. Stamper, ATM Experiment Officer
Dr. Nell R. Sheeley, ATM Princlpal Investigator Representative
Bill Mayes, PAO

f
- PC-78
SL-III PC78A/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

PAO Okay. Gentlemen today we have with us,


Charles Lewis, the off-going Flight Director and with him
is the ATM Experiment Officer Darrell Stamper, on the extreme
right and in the middle there is the ATM Principle Investigator
Representative Dr. Nell Sheeley, and Chuck will make a statement
and I'ii be backed up by the two other gentlemen, and then we'll
have questions. We'll have the microphone in the back. Chuck.
LEWIS Okay, just a brief summary. We've had no
systems problems during the day or last night to report.
The systems seem to be performing very well at this point.
It's been primarily ATM and support and some corollary
support S019 type passes. And I brought along the ATM
people that you've been introduced to here because we've had
quite a bit of activity in the Sun today and as a matter of
fact we scrubbed an EREP pass that we had planned in favor
of some flare support. And I'ii let the experts in the solar
physics talk about that Sun activity, and then you can come back
I guess with any questions you might have other than that.
And maybe Darrell would care to go ahead and then get it started
and then Neil can discuss - however you'd like to do it there
Darrell or Nell, either way.
STAMPER Okay. Basically what I'll give is kind of a
time line and then let Neil discuss the scientific aspects
if he cares to. And basically what we had today was two
flares. One, occurred at 18:30. It maxed out at 18:33 and
by 18:49, we had declared it gone and that was in active region
12 at 19:56 we go another one in active region 9 and we have
yet to complete all the data taking on it so I can't give
you a - the rest of the parameters and I'd like Nell Sheeley
from the Naval Research Laboratory to discuss the aspects of
the interplay between active regions 12 and 9 that happened
today. And i might just turn it over to Neil right now.
SHEELEY Okay, we're less - at least I'll speak
for myself I feel less than composed after all of this
excitement for the day. I have here a H-ALPHA picture it was
taken in Boulder at 14:12 this afternoon which if you compare
with the times that Darrell just gave us somewhat before the
flare but at least if you can see this, which maybe you can there
are a number of complexes of activity spread across the disc
north is up east is over here west and south is below and
these are carried across the disc in a period of about two
weeks as the Sun rotates and we've been numbering them so that
we can quickly refer to them in our uplinks and downlinks.
This is active 12, the one that flared. I should say that
they've all been flaring to some degree over the past few days
but only todya - -.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-78B/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
r_ 9/5/73

SHEELEY I should say that they have all been


flaring to some degree over the past few days. But only
today, did it trigger off our flare alarm, in which we go into
a major flare observation. Apparently at that time, we did
not have ground contact because we were getting our information
from the NOAA network. They had informed us of H-alpha
brightenings, this is H-alpha. And they brighten rapidly in
a period of seconds to minutes. Radio bursts from various
observatories around the world and so forth. When we did
get contact, Owen Garriott, who was at the panel at that
time, the ATM panel. His first words were, "What have you
guys have on the flare?" Then he described some of the things
that he had begun to do. One of the things that he did during
that pass, day/night cycle, was downlink some real life TV
copies of which I have here. And on the TV, what we saw
and what we had already information about but hadn't seen
personally was a large surge which had surged out from the
region approximately i00,000 miles in the direction from
active region 12 towards active region 9. We eventually
lost contact and NOAA began telling us of small brightenings
in active region 9. And we came up the next time, active
region 9 was undergoing a major flare and we were in the
flare observations again. I could give you some numbers as
to what constitutes a - how bright it is, how much energy
" comes out - out of it or what. The first one, we refered
to as a MI was between M1 and M2. We'll call it MI.5 flare
which corresponds to 1.5 times i0 to the minus 2 ergs per
square centimeter per second. At the (garble) of the earth.
The second flare, the one that occurred in active region 9,
in which we're still observing, was a MI flare and the number
of ergs per square centimeter per second associated with
that in the vicinity of the earth is 1.0 times lO to the
minus 2. I think that's perhaps enough for me to say unless
you have specific questions.
QUERY Do you have any explanations for the
fact that this was fore to be a period of inactivity,
suppose to be a period of quiet and then about a week ago
we - the forecasts were revised. And is there any explanation
for why the sun is acting this way now?
SHEELY I should begin to say, that this isn't
the first time I've been asked this question. And in the
previous answers that I've given, people have accused me
of not answering the question. But simply giving some
information related to the statement. We don't know what
causes solar activity. There're various theories. Some of
which are on the average quite plausible. And when I say
on the average I mean, in the same way that we know the
_ SL-III PC-78B/2
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/7S

storm season in certain parts of the world occur at certain


times of the year. We also know that solar activity on the
average occurs, at least in this century 1958, 1968, 1978,
so forth. So your question why in these inbetween years,
do we get so much activity all of a sudden. Well again,
I won't answer your question, because I can't. But I will
say that if you do plot a measure of the sunspot - measure
of the solar activity, namely the sunspot number verses
time, you get a very up and down type curve. And even during
solar minimum, the ups and downs are very large and so it's
happens in many solar cycles, ten years ago, ten years before
that and so forth, you get some of the biggest boomers, I
shouldn't say biggest, some big boomers, even during solar
minimum. One thing, and stop me if I'm going on too long,
of interest here is, we _hing that the back side of the
sun, the other side is very quiet. So as soon as these
have been carried off the disc by the solar rotation, we'll -

END OF TAPE

S
F SL-III PC-78C/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

SHEELEY - - of interest here is, we think that the


back side of the Sun, the other side, is very quiet. So as
soon as these have been carried off the disk by a solar
rotation, we'll be in a pretty quiet period again.
QUERY I've got several things. One, could you
give us some sort of brief explanation about what this M1
means in relation to a really large flare or a really small
flare or just how they're classified first of all."
SHEELEY Um-hum. I think by number, this would be
a medium-plus flare. I personally don't have enough first-
hand knowledge that would be statistically significant.
We've had a number of flares in the last 6 months or so
and I haven't kept track of them all. You forget them -
you forget how big they are over periods of time. I believe
in the first Skylab mission, we had an MI which we were all
very proud of getting. And we pointed them out - pointed
it out to you. In terms of what these numbers, the M's and
so forth, mean, the classification by letter - the C classi-
fication and then the middle strong M classification and then
the very, very, very strong X classification are really
associated with the next decade quantitatively in the number
of ergs per square centimeter per second in the i to 8 angstrom
range - X-ray range as measured on - I believe it's Oso 7
or Solrad I guess it is, one of the Earth circling satellites.
Now when I say next decade, I mean if a C flare is I0 to the
minus 3, an M flare is I0 to the minus 2 which is i0 times
as many ergs which is the unit of energy per area, centimeter
squared per unit of time, second, and then X flare is i0 to
the minus I or a tenth. So each one of these is a factor
of I0greater in the classification.
QUERY Is there any way to translate this energy
release into something that a layman could understand?
SHEELEY Yeah, there is. I don't know if I know off-
hand. The solar constant, which is the total amount of energy
incident on the surface of the Earth, I think is something
like 4 calories - some - 2 cal - 2.0 calories per centimeter
squared per minute. Calorie then is something that perhaps
people could understand. You also can understand it from
the amount of sunburn you got and so forth, I guess, although
there's more energy than just the ultraviolet that causes
the sunburn. And the problem that you've given me then is
to convert calories to ergs and then seconds to minutes, and
I have to look for a few minutes to do that. I think rather
than take your time and do it, or give you the wrong number,
I better either wait till later or skip it. Perhaps you'd
like to rephrase it and I could work on it.
QUERY I don't know - I don't know if there is any
F- way to rephrase it, except that is it so many tons of TNT or
SL-III PC-78C/2
14 Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

QUERY many megatons of something that - or is it


translatable in those terms.
SHEELEY I'm sure it is and it may well exceed them
for example. I'm sure that, not from personal experience
but only from reading scientific textbooks and so forth,
literature, that the amount of energy from one of these things
far exceeds the usual kinds of energy we're used to on the
Earth, such as in a storm or in a cyclone or a hurricane or
an H bomb or anything like this. Remember, too, that's it's
incident on the whole Earth

END OF TAPE

/ ,
SL-III PC78D/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

(SPEAKER CONT'D) - - so I don't know.


QUERY T have a couple of questions. Is this
Hi.5 the largest flare we've seen on scope - Skylab?
And also have you goLten any con - conclusion out as to
whether there's any r,elationship between the flare on active
region 9 and the one _on active region 12 today?
SPEAKER I'ii do your first question - second
question first. It looks like there is a relation we saw
the surge squirting o_t of 12 headed for 9 and we were
talking about 9 before we got the big boomer in it so that's
not impossible. Second a number of experiments that we've
been conducting during this week have involved taking pictures
not only of these indivudual regions but of the regions in
between them and some of the preliminary data that we have
shows indeed in the corona high above the surface there are
loops connecting them and we can't see these from the ground
and from the ground you have pictures like this they - they
are clues and so forth and other kinds of surface connections
but you can't see these great loops from the ground because
they occur in the ult faviolet radiations now when you do have
connections such as that as we have seen not only from the
preliminary Skylab-III, this second Skylab mission, information
we also in looking at the - on the film data from the first
Skylab mission actual_y have seen these loops. And given
connection it's not unreasonable you can have flares that
affect another region and cause it to flare. Movies in the
past in lines - in pictures llke this when you make time
lapsed studies of them often show waves propagating out and
when the wave gets to the next active region it suddenly
flares. Also why do all these regions pop up all of a sudden
I mean two or three months ago it was fairly quiet here and
suddenly we haven't just got one big region but we've got
a whole bunch of regions and we see loops connecting them
magnetite loops. So something very interesting is going on
here and we're trying to untangle these loops I guess you'd
say. (Chuckle).
QUERY I have M-I.2?
QUERY Oh, is that the largest?
SPEAKER Oh, yes I'm sorry. I think we've got an
M2 in the first mission although I don't think we got the flare
arise I think we got it about the peak and then the fall.
This one the MI.5, Owen Gat_iott was there and he is becoming
more and more skillful in his operations he cau - actually
caught this on the rise which is very important because from
what knowlege we already know a plot of amount of energy
coming out of these things is a function of time shows
initial spike - initial sharp rise in the number of ergs

F _¸"
SL-III PC78D/2
Time: 16:27 CDT
_ 9/5/73

per so forth that last only 20 seconds or there abouts


plus or minus 10 say. And then it falls back and then the
whole flare continues to rise for a couple of minutes and
then slowly fall over a period of minutes to hour an a half
say. And in this sharp spike is a lot of what we call the
hard radiation, the X-rays, and the short wave radiations in
the ultraviolet.
QUERY Can we expect any unusual activity in
the earth's magnetic field as result of this activity?
SHEELEY We certainly can. We certainly can and
already have in fact it was really interesting today as I
say we're far from compose becuase of all the things that
were happening simultaneously and we had to make a lot of
decisions that were hard decisions and in the midst of all
this I think the SPT quoted down when he c_me onto a when -
we had an acquisition of signal when we came over ground
site he said the PLT and that's the Pilot Jack Lousma, has
just observed some - an aurora over Australia, and this
aurora presumably is caused as we often know,by some of
this solar activity now whether it was caused by these
flares is not clear, sometimes it takes some time for the
effects to reach the earth, for particles - materials like
proton, and hydrogen atoms and so forth that squirt from
the sun to the earth sometimes takes 4-1/2 days or so.
So these auroras may have been caused by some of the flares
that we 've been seeing.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-78E/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

SPEAKER atoms and so forth. A squirt from the


sun to the earth, sometimes takes 4-1/2 days or so. So these
aurora may have been caused by some the flares that we've
been seen - seeing over the past few days. If that's the
case, we can look for some really big ones. And it's -
some of these big flares are not uncommon to produce auroras
even at low - low earth latitudes. One was seen in Arizona,
for example in 1966, when we had one of these major flares.
So, of course, what's that have to do with your - your
magnetic affects. These particles from the sun carry lines
of magnetic force with them and when they reach the earth,
they push back and interact with the earth's magnetic fields. And
a number of interesting physical things happen under these
circumstances, one aspect, which is the aurora, other aspects
of which are - these power - gener - what is it when you have
a EMF - a back EMF power generator stations are always reporting
trip outs and things of this nature due to the tremendous
surges that occur when you have a rapidly changing magnetic
field generating the electric currents that trip their
circuit breakers and so forth. If we ever have a way of
conveying great sources of power around the country, and
have to do it in - with super conducting wires and so forth,
this will be - I understand this will be very important, as
to know when to stop before we get stopped. I've heard stories
and I can't begin quote per firsthand hut reading literature
and reports you - you hear comments that if such and such
a power was disrupted as fast as could be caused by such a
flare, the disruption would have the energy generation equivalent
to some kind of a bomb. I won't say whether atomic bomb or
hydrogen bomb or what. But majored - major disaster. So
this has great importance.
QUERY Have you heard of any reports of radio
distrrbances, as a result of this, of the activity in the sun
in the last few days?
SPEAKER No, we have been so busy with the mission
I haven't - haven't heard about that I - the radio disturbances
of course that we have been talking about have been the ones in
which we're observing the Sun and observing the sun's radio. And
the storm that we've had here, has - I don't know when I watch
television and last night I was trying to look at the weather
report and they had a nice time lapse movie of the clouds and the
hurricane and it was all disrupted by the hurricane, itself.
So, it's hard to separate (laugh) which - which is right
here (laugh).
QUERY If there's same activity as going on
tomorrow, Chuck would you scrub another EREP or something
like that, to take advantage of the fact again?
SL-III PC-78E/2
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

LEWIS It really depends upon the specific


circumstances. If just turned out this EREP pass is one
that is repeated again in 5 days. It was at a time when they
you needed post-flare work. It depends basically, because
the flares are transient in nature, we haven't - we don't,
you know, see you haven't seen them that often. We would
override an EREP pass, in general in favor a flare support.
QUERY As this a - or as these flares, reached
the corona, would you expect prominences to occur?
SPEAKER Sometimes you see pre-existing prominences
disappear when flares occur. I don't know whether you'd
expect a prominence to form. I do know maybe you could call
it a kind of prominence. Some times from the ground when
we're looking at moves of pictures like this of the various
filaments and prominence - prominence against the disc is
called filiments looks dark because it's blocking out the
light from under it. But when you see one of these sticking
off the llmb when it's carried to that position. If a
flare does occur at the llmb, quite often when the flare is
over you see what is call -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-78F/I
f_" Time: 16:27 CDT
915173

SHEELEY If a flare does occur at the limb, quite


often when the flare is over, you see what are called post-
flare loops. And they're very, very bright. And they curve
up and they're visible, in addition to these X-ray and ultra-
violet radiations that I was describing, they're also visible
in these H-alpha pictures. Now, you might refer to that as
a kind of prominence, although that's not what one generally
thinks of - at least, it's not what I generally think of as
a prominence. A prominence being perhaps more of a quiescent
or a relatively long-lived thing. But if there is one near
or not too distant from an active region and the flare goes
off, you may see it blast right off the surface. Like one
of the aspects of our post-flare operations here is if a
prominence does lift like that, one might see it in the
corona beyond the limb of the Sun. And one of the things
that we're _oing after the flare is looking with the corona-
graph that we have onboard to see, indeed, if we se something
like that. So what the cause is and what the effect is, I
don't know. But if there is one, it may blast off or lift
off.
QUERY On the films that are brought back from this
mission, do you expect to see these loops from 12 to 9.
SHEELEY Yes, I would. In fact, - excuse me, go
_- ahead.
QUERY Go ahead and finish.
SHEELEY I was going to say, this morning I had asked
the Harvard College Observatory experiment on Skylab, I'd
asked some of their people if they could bring over some
of their recent down-llnked pictures so that we could actually
look and see them. They have seen them and they were reported
and that's why we're taking data in between these regions.
And I think the pictures in the next few days will he very
interesting.
QUERY Well, with both of these flares going off
at once or almost so, is this the most solar activity you've
seen above the Earth's atmosphere.
STAMPER This gives the best resolution you've had.
SHEELEY It's the best we've had of that. That's
correct. Of course, from the ground We've seen lots of flares
and with low resolution on the Oso experiments, we've seen
lots of flares. But we've never had data of this superb
quality which I think can actually answer the questions,
you know, about how these are connected and how the loops
are and why the magnetic fields othe Sun are so important
in all this solar activity. So I think now we've actually
got possibility of actually answering the questions that
we've had clues of in the past say l0 years.
SL III PC-78F/2
F_ Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

QUERY What's the importance of the answers?


SHEELEY Well, there - in what respect. There are
many reasons why they're important.
QUERY How about just one or two?
SHEELEY All right. From the physics standpoint,
it's important is we're going to understand solar activity
at all, it's important to under the Sun's magnetism. Now
you might look at this as a special - as a physics problem
as pure research and so forth and in that - for that partic-
ular purpose it's very important to see these loop_ because
in the past we've been able to measure. And I show here
a magnetogram. This was a magnetogram taken at the Kit Peak
National Observatory and wired to us over the NOAA network.
And you see these light and dark patches scattered about the
Sun. Now these show where the magnetism on the surface of
the Sun is located. The black refers to a - well, in this
case, it's a minus polarity and the white is a plus polarity
in the sense that the white represents magnetic fields pointed
out of the Sun toward the Earth and the black into the Sun
away from the Earth. And you can see that characteristically
the active regions are by polar nature with white followed
by black, white followed by black, white followed by black,
in the southern hemisphere with this the equator, north, up;
r south, down. In the northern hemisphere, you'll notice
exactly the opposite. Black followed by white, black followed
by white. You invision there 4 loops

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-78G/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
/_ 9/5/73

SHEELEY - - in the southern hemisphere with this


the equator, north, up; south, down. And in the northern
hemisphere, you'll notice exactly the opposite, black fol-
lowed by white, black followed by white. You envision there
4 loops going up somewhere and coming down somewhere else.
We've never been able to observe the loops. We've only been
able to by means of the Zamen effect, which involves the
splitting of a spectral llne in the presence of a magnetic
field, determine where the fields are and what their strength
is on the surface only. And we don't know, for example,
for sure where the fields in this white feature goes, what
black thing it comes back into. And we've found some tre-
mendous surprises in the first Skylah data. We found that
indeed most of the flux, magnetic lines of force from the
white, do go into the black from the same region. But some of
it goes elsewhere. And you'd never be able to guess by
looking at one of these where they go.
QUERY Well, with enough data of this type, that
is, flares occurring simultaneously like, could this become
a method of flare prediction?
SHEELEY I believe it could. If we could understand
the solar magnetism, I think we could begin to understand
the flare production. One theory, for example, isthat if
you have a loop of magnetic field, if it's a simple thing,
in which it, say, comes up out of the white into the atmos-
phere and goes down into the black, then that's a stable
situation. But if due to something or other llke currents -
material flows in the solar atmosphere and on the solar
surface, if these flows begin to wind up and twist and deform
these magnetic lines of force, you may eventually like when
you twist up a rubber band have a sudden instability, a
sudden kink. You know, how when you wind it up, it suddenly
goes llke that, the rubber band, well, the magnetic lines
of force are thought perhaps to do the same thing. And when
these lines of force suddenly go into their instability with
this rapid kink, they are thought to accelerate Particles
and if they accelerate particles it's like a particle ac-
celerator on the Earth where create heating and acceleration
and high energy and all this sort of thing. The particles
bump into other particles and heat them up, some particles
squirt to the Earth, others produce E-rays which go to the
Earth and other places. So I believe that if we can under-
stand more about the solar magnetism, we will have a good
handle on the flares. Now you have to also know about the
material motions that are winding up the magnetic lines of
force presumably also.

f •
SL-III PC-78G/2
Time: 16:27 CDT
_-_ 9/5/73

QUERY Well, does it follow from that that if you


did develop a method of flare prediction, you would have a
method of predicting communications, interruptions, and that
sort of thing on Earth.
SHEELEY Yes, you would.
QUERY Getting off the sun for a minute, I have
one for Chuck. Starting before 7 o'clock this morning, we
made several requests to the PAO to try to get some comment
from Commander Bean on his setting the new space record there
through the capsule communicator but we're - why was the
word not ever passed up to him during the day?
LEWIS I guess we've been rather busy during the
day, and normally we have our chance for evening questions
and that kind of comment in the afternoon in their presleep
activity and I imagine that Story's going to advise Bean he's
set the record and continues to.
QUERY Normally it's the first thing in the morning
in the last few flights, they've always told them whenever
a new record came up they usually told them the first thing
in the morning. We _ere just kind of curious today -
LEWIS I Just don't know that there's any reason
why we really haven't. But we'll be getting that up to AI
probably this evening.
SHEELEY They can read it out of the newspaper.
f LEWIS Yeah.
SHEELEY Evening news.
LEWIS As a matter of fact, that's what we do when
we read them the news in the evening there's usually - every
now and then there's some Skylab items that we pass up. This
has made the paper this morning, Skylab's in the news, that
kind of thing. I might mention that Milt and the CAP COMM
will up-link that this evening.
PAO All that is part of the evening newscast
up to the crew
QUERY Talking about reading the news in the evening,
does it strike you as strange that so much of the more prom-
inent news has never gotten to them? For instance, they
don't even know that the Vice President's in trouble.
LEWIS Strike me as what?
QUERY As peculiar -

END OF TAPE

i_
SL-III PC78H/I
Time: 16:27 CDT
9/5/73

(STAMPER CONT'D) - - for instance they don't even know


that the Vice-President is in trouble.
QUERY Strike me as what? :
STAMPER As perculiar as strange as unusual.
SPEAKER (Chuckle).
SPEAKER Personally no it doesn't strike me as
strange. I guess I'ii have to give you an impersonal answer
(chuckle).
QUERY Along that line they've kept p_etty much
away from political news as far as - they know nothing about
what went on the Watergate hearings and they don't know any-
thing about the Vice-President's trouble and (garble).
SPEAKER If you get into that though yo_'ve got
about a 5 minute pass for news uplinks you'd get tied up
on one or two subjects day to day because some change or
some new item in Watergate or the Vice-President e_ery day,
you know that's one reason I think - - .
QUERY Just curious that there were sqme some-
thing that forbids them from reading up political news?
SPEAKER No, there is not.
Mc:EASH Let me speak to that briefly as a matter
of policy we do try to avoid political subjects.
SPEAKER As I may add to Mr. _cLeash's domment
there I've been looking up the evening news cast a_d usually
about a page to a page and a half is all the CAP COMM has
time to pass up to them and we usually try to put _n more
cheerful items rather than things that indicate out leaders
are in trouble of some sort.
QUERY Well, the day that Agnew was in trouble
they read up a story about a train wreck or something where
30 people were killed I don't know that's pleasant news
in comparisons to (garble).
SPEAKER Well, they usually try to avoid that too
that's just one that got by.
SPEAKER We try to send up the lighter news,
(chuckle) I guess you might say.
PAO I have a few questions that were called
in, one of them have to do with the astronauts at present
crew up there. Have they received training on space
manufacturing?
SPEAKER Basically, no, this crew has not we are
going to try and impliment some M518, I believe is'the -
is one the pilot has - is slightly familiar with that he
work_d on the development of that equipment early We don't
think there's any problem with them in conducting _hat one
and we're developing procedures now a little mor -fin little
more detail than what's in the present checklist sO they can

/
SL-III PC78H/2
Time: 1627 CDT
9/5/73

operate that.
PAO Another one, what EREP passes are planned
for tomorrow?
SPEAKER Track 30, that's a continental pass and
I'm not familiar with the exact - I would believe that's
probably up across the northern and mld-United States but
I'm not certain I'ii have to check. One pass.
PAO Now this one may need a little interpre-
tation the question was: has anyone identifed yesterday's
bang? I understand that there was a noise heard during
communication from the spacecraft.
SPEAKER Well during the sleep period night
before last the crew was awakened by a loud thump and they
told us about it and we've gone back and analyzed all the
data and see nothing in the systems areas that would indicate
any problem somebody suggested to me today that it might
have been Jack Lousma slamming the refrigerator door, (laughter).
SPEAKER That's what Owen said.
SPEAKER (Laughter), is that what Owen said, okay
I hadn't hear that one.
SPEAKER (Garble).
SPEAKER (Laughter), you know Skylab-ll, the crew
reported several times the noises the creaks the cracks
and the crackling noises they heard the spacecraft thermal
due to thermal changes. This une I got the impression was
a bit more than that but we have not been able to relate
it to any system problem on board.
PAO Okay, why is there not going to be a fly
around after undocking?
SPEAKER The answer to that is we've only got
two service module quads since B&D we not - we don't plan
to use and it would require good attitude control for a
fly around and we don't want to do that.
PAO And no why are we not going to televise
the undocking?
SPEAKER I wasn't sure that we would not televise
the undocking but one of the problems with that is to get
the TV from the command module you have to be over a ground
station which ties your time line down and that may be the
reason there because you know the VTR the videu tape
recorders is in the workshop and not in the connnand module
they couldn't record the video and then play it back it has
to be real time.
PAO Okay, gentlemen are there any other
question?

END OF TAPE

j_
SL-III PC-78/I
- Time: 16:72 CDT
9_5_73

SPEAKER - couldn't record the video and then


play it back, just have to be real time.
PAO Okay, gentlemen. Any other questions?
Okay, thank you all for coming.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Solar Activity Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 6, 1973
2:02 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Dr. Ed. Reeves, S055 Principal Investigator


Dr. Robert MacQueen, S052 Principal Investigator
Joe Hirman, NOAA
Ed Medal, PAO

PC-79
SL-III PC-79A/I
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6/73

PAO All right. This afternoon we're going to


have a solar activity briefing. We have with us, this
afternoon, to my immediate right, Joe Hirman from the
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, to
his right, Dr. Ed Reeves, who is the Principal Investigator
for the S055, UV Scanning Spectrometer, and down on the
end, Dr. Robert MacQueen, P.I. for the SO52 white light
coronograph. We'll start with Mr. Hirman and let him
explain some of this activity and then go on to Dr. Reeves
and Dr. MacQueen, and then we'll field your questions.
HIRMAN Okay. This, here, is a picture of the Sun
as photographed by Canaries early this morning. To give you
an idea where the activity occurred there is a small little
brightening on the what's called the west limb of the Sun,
right here. The activity at that time - at the time of this
picture, is at 08:37, was very minor, Just small mounds
on the edge of the Sun. At approximately 09:10, and we got
a call in from both Canaries and Carnarvon, that there was
an ejeetive material moving out from this point quite rapidly,
in fact, in five minutes it reached something like five
Earth diameters, which is - you can see on this picture here,
is a representation of what it looked like at 09:14, 09:16,
and 09:18. This material came from a very small, and we
thought, insignificant region of the Sun, nothing to be
compared with these other regions, these here. These regions
here are very large. The one that produced this event was
very small in comparison. The only thing we had to indicate
that there might be something coming from this region was
yesterday it became very bright, still visible on the disc,
and through the night it rotated off the disc. And it looked
like at that time, that it was growing. And this is probably
a consequence of its growth. We had some This activity
is usually associated with growing type regions. The
amount of energy dissipated or that we observed near the earth
was - ten to the - well ten to the one - ten to the minus
one ergs for centimeters square per second, and this number
probably converts back to the Sun as something like ten to
the 31 ergs, which we're trying to establish how many atom bombs
that is and I don't have that number right now. But it is quite
large. I don't have any other - If you - I could pass these
around any idea of how many events occurred like this last
August, 1972, we had the largest activity of this cycle.
There were many flares and some of them exceeded this event
today, as far as, x-ray size. Since that time, we've had
seven x-ray events or seven flares have produced an x-ray
event as big as this or bigger. And they occurred in January
April, and May. During Skylab, this is the largest x-ray
event we have observed, or we can verify with our instrument.

f
SL-III PC-79A/2
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6/73

The classification is taken from data that's recorded aboard


a SOLRAD satellite and it looks at the energy channels.
And the channel we picked is the one to eight angstrom,
which is a narrow - very narrow band frequency, wavelength.
And this is what we used as a base or as a classification
of flares. I can pass these pictures around. Any questions?
PAO Why don't we wait just until all of you
are completed with your briefings and then we'll take the
questions as they come.
HIRAM Okay.
REEVES Okay. Well, I'ii say a few words about
the ATM and hopefully something about the importance of
this activity, which is on the Sun right now. The second
Skylab mission, which started out some weeks ago, face a
very very quiet Sun. We were given on SL-3, significantly
more time for solar observation than we were given on SL-2.
And, in fact, have received enough time that a great many
of the accomplishments that we set out to achieve on
SL-3, we've been able to get data on. However, the Sun has
been extremely quiet, days and days when there was almost
no active region whatsoever, on the solar disc. Then just
a few days ago, about a week ago now, the solar activity
started to increase really appreciably and you can see now,
from this picture that's over here on the monitor, which is
a picture in H-alpha, being taken in real time here at
Houston, picture of the Sun, you can see that even now, there
are four rather major active regions on the solar disc.
There are in fact, about five or six active regions that
are either just on the west limb, which is to the right of
the screen, or towards the center of the disc, and three
of these regions have had large sun spots in them, again
a rather unusual combination of solar active regions and
Sunspots for this time in the solar cycle. As, I think you're
probably aware, the Sun goes through a cycling variation
every 22 years. Every ii years the activity builds up to
a maximum and then falls to a minimum and builds up to a
maximum in the other hemisphere of the Sun ii years later,
goes through another minimum and goes back to a l_rge
amount of activity in the first part of the - northern most
part of the Sun, say. The solar cycle is measured - The
activity on the Sun is measured normally, in terms of
Sun spot numbers and those Sun spots that you see there
on the Sun, are rather large and the large - the Sunspot
number is derived from a combination of Sunspot size and the
number of sunspots. And we are now, in 1973, very near the
minimum of solar activity. So, one expects very few Sunspots.
And, because, Sun spots occur in active regions there are
relatively few active regions and therefore, relatively few
SL-III PC-79AI3
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6/73
f-
solar flares, or any other type of diamic event on the Sun.
However, Sunspot numbers and solar cycles are statistical
things. They have significance only in large numbers or when
averaged over months and even years. So, it is not unknown,
although, it certainly unusual for there to be this much
activity all at once on the Sun at the time of solar minimum.
There have been large - very large active regions, as I
said very large Sun spots which are regions embedded in the
hot active regions. These are cooler, very intense magnetic
fields which constrain the material in the Sun spots. And
associated with these new active regions and these developing
active regions have been a large number of flares. Mr. Hirman
mentioned that in SL-2, the first Skylab Mission, we were
quite excited when we got a class C flare. Now the X-ray of
that, some flares give out X-rays and some don't. The x-ray
classifications are C, M, and X. C's are the lower classi-
fication, M's the middle classification and X are very large
X-ray events, normally. In the first mission, we had a
class C flare, and were really quite excited about it. We
got very good data on that flare. The flare that occurred
this morning is a class X flare, one of the largest flares
that occurred on the limb of the Sun. We were able to get
data from the ATM, even though the flare took place at a
time when the astronauts were asleep. Some of the instruments
onboard can be operated unmanned, or unattended. And within
20 minutes we had a ground station. We're able to command
the ATM to begin taking data so that those experiments, such
as the white light coronagraph and X-ray telescopes which
has wide fields of view could begin seeing the events that
take place in the corona that had been associated with this
particular dynamic flare. And that flare was followed for
several hours until it died out and then the ATM picked up
with its normal observing sequences. The - Since the last
few days, we've had a number of class M events as well as
some C events, subflares - minor ones, but this is certainly
the largest flare that we've seen in either of the Skylab
Missions. It did have a coronal manifestation and I think
to - that's as good a point as any to turn it over to
Dr. MacQueen, who may make a few com -

END OF TAPE

f_
SL-III PC79B/I
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6173

HIRMAN . .. Skylab missions. It did have a


coronal manifestation and I think to - that's as good a
point as any to turn it over to Dr. MacQueen who may make
a few comments on that.
SPEAKER Okay, Ed. Dr. Reeve's already mentioned that the
flare occurred while the crew was asleep. He mentioned
also that there were so-called unattended observations of
the Sun as soon as possible following the flare. In order
to achieve these operations the flight control people had
to move a procedure that we normally do each evening prior -
or each morning, I should say, prior to crew wakeup; something
called closeout. They moved that procedure so as to allow
us to go ahead and make the observations. And indeed it
turns out that there is what we call a coronal transient
associated with this event. Now this transient which was
examined closely by A1 Bean and Owen Garriott together at
the ATM console this morning after they had awakened this
transient is different from the so-called bubbles we've seen
two examples of during SL-III, and we're particularly interested
because it is different. It's different in the sense that
I - from the verbal description that A1 Bean talked down at
7:30 this morning. The brightenings that occurred in the
corona apparently occurred within the confines of a coronal
streamer that was present on the limb of the Sun. That is,
rather than an expanding arch moving outward into the corona
_- as we saw examples on TV down-links earlier, mission day 14
and mission day 25 of this mission. This material which
is moving outward from the Sun was confined to within
streamer structure, a preexisting magnetic field structure
on the edge of the Sun. And the implication, of course, is
that the strength of the magnetic field that's already in
the corona, that preexists in the corona, is such that the
material flowing outward from the Sun caused by the flare,
or subsequent events, - the magnetic field strength
is sufficient to overcome the pressure of that material
and confine it within the streamer. And so this - this
event is different. Apparently we're in a different energy
domain even though this flare is more energetic than that
associated with some of the bubble events earlier in the
mission. And again as 1 read the transcripts to see what
operations the crew made, I'm impressed as always with the
intelligence with which they went about making both the visual
and the photographic observations. They made a number of
observations with the coronagraph, Made a number of pictures
with the coronagraph and with the x-ray telescope; selected
a very appropriate mode expecially for the x-ray telescope
SL-III PC79B/2
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6/73

to run in, then halted the observations, examined the


corona again in detail using the monitors that are available,
and reacted to that to introduce - to began yet another
mode. And again I'm extremely impressed with the intelligence
with which they went about observing this particular event.
And we're interested in this because it is of a different
character than the coronal transience that we have seen
earlier in this SL-III mission.
QUERY If one - for instance, going back to
the comment I made on the solar cycle. If you take the
average number of flares per hour, say, that occur at this
time of the solar cycle, on the average it would be improbable
that ATM would see more than one mlddle-sized flare per mission.
So the fact that we have seen 4 or 5 medium-sized and 1 great
big flare in the last 4 or 5 days shows you that statistics
cannot always be followed reliably. There were weeks and
weeks when you see nothing, and then we have this period
where the Sun is really very active. I think Mr. Hirman
now has a few numbers that have been passed to him here which
convert these sizes of flares into recognizable significant
numbers.
SPEAKER You know the San Francisco earth-
quake for instance produce something like i0 to the 23rd
ergs. A typical flare does that about i00 million
times. So a typical flare is about i00 million times
the earthquake the energy in the earthquake and the same
is true about megaton bombs which was about equivalent as
what the San Fancisco earthquake was. So the total energy
in a flare is mammoth I think it's huge and in talk that the -
we're in the bottom of the sunspot cycle which - you wouldn't believe
it from the pictures and also from the comments from ATM,
and I just like to point out that this is the front side
of the Sun. On the backside is something that's typical
to what the Sun should be looking like which is you have
nothing - you have none of these regions. You have only a
few small sunspots and that is what we kind of expected
for this time of the cycle and this that's what we kind
of expected for this mission. And we're very lucky and I
think we should expound on what activity we had. It's
phenomenal.
SPEAKER (garble) taking on a point that
Bob referred to here these flares are events that only
occur infrequently, when they occur they occur very suddenly
they cannot be realiably predicated from the ground even
though we have monitors around the world observing the
sun almost continuously day and night. These flares can
SL-III PC79B/3
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6/73

not be reliably predicted they can be statistically predicted


and each day NOAA gives us a statistical prediction on what's
• going to happen in flares that day and they haven't had any
X's and almost no M's (laughter).
SPEAKER We can say when we - where we expect it
to happen but not when and in some cases we can't even do where.
SPEAKER And the flares when they occur even a big
X flare like this only lasts i0 or 20 minutes. It peaks up
in a few minutes and dies away and a middle-sized flare may
only last i0 5 or I0 minutes. And all of this tremendous
amount of energy is stored up in the solar atmosphere and
then the objective of - one of the objectives at least of
ATM is to try to get a better understanding of how this tremendous
amount of energy can be stored in the first place and secondly
how it can be released so quickly to produce these very
dynamic events which particularly major events on the
west limb of the sun or towards the center to the west llmb
can eject large quanities of particles which stream through
space between the sun and the earth disrupt radio communications
cause aurorae, magnetic storms, very large perturbations on
quantities on earth. We don't know the answers to those questions.
SPEAKER I can add one thing. The event was in the
proper geometry for interception with the earth there's a cot -
there's a kind of spiral that comes out of the sun where things
happen in the west have a better chance of getting to the
r_ earth than things that happen in the east. And this was far
to the west llmb which may be just a little bit out of the
normal trajectory towards the earth, however, it is still very
very good as far as intercepting the earth. Unfortunately the
energy and the energy we can see not only in the optical and
X-ray but in the radio - radio profile indicated that the
protons that were emitted were not of sufficient energy to reach
the earth. So we don't expect much as far as a proton enhanced
event at the earth and as far as the aurora and other
phenomena, geomagnetic storms we are experiencing them now the
crew has mentioned it. We do see it in our magnetometers and it's due
mainly to all the activity that has come up in the last few
days. The index that we use is how much the earth's magnetic field
fluctuates has gone up since the first of September. The quiet
period is around 4, units of four and we're now running 15
maybe tomorr - today and tomorrow may be around 20 which indicates
a pretty good storm and pretty good chance for an aurora both
in the northern and southern hemisphere. And this has been
reported by the crew and this event if it did produce protons
energetically enough would not do much more than what is happening
now. The events in August did produce a lot of - a lot of
problems and they happened kind of by themself. There was
only one big region and you could it moved accross the
SL-III PC79B/4
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14:02 GMT
9/6/73

earth - the sun the earth went through its orbit and we
intercepted that eventually. But these regions produced
activity continuously and therefore the field has been
disturbed anyway.
PAO Perhaps this would be a good time to
call for some questions?
SPEAKER Yeah, let's have some questioms and.
SPEAKER Let me clear up just one thing for my
own benefit. Those per -
END OF TAPE
SL-III PC79C-I
Time: 02:02 CDT
9/6/73

SPEAKER - Perhaps it would be a good time to


call for some questions.
SPEAKER Yeah, let's have some questions and continue.
QUERY Let me clear up just one thing, for my
own benefit, those prints we were looking at, how are they
obtained?
SPEAKER These are - are taken with a H-alpha
telescope on the ground in Canary Islands_ for example. They're
the same telescope, in fact that we have to see through the clouds
occasionally on the monitors here. There is a telescope out
in the site here at the north end of the site. It's the same
telescope. It looks at the Sun in hydrogen Alpha and photo-
graph (garble) you put on film, and they make a copy and we send
it by wire photo transmitter to the science room.
QUERY Well, then this thing that looked llke
a mushroom-llke cloud, what do you call that?
SPEAKER This is a - a surge or a spray type phe-
nomena. A surge is a plasma or material that is emitted
from a region and I've got an example what it looked like
yesterday on the desk, for instance. This is an example one that
looked - that happened yesterday. Looking straight down on
the Sun, you can see more of a manifestation than this. They're
not the same sort of thing. However, they do represent the
same thing. There's a material that is shot out from some source
in the coronasphere and it follows the field lines - the magnetic
_ field lines on this part of the Sun and you can see the
material is this black area hanging down over here. We call
it a surge or a spray. The surge will follow the field lines,
a spray will take the field - the magnetic field and push it
out with it, which is probably what happened here.
QUERY All right. Now then. Then that brings up
the question of what could you expect from the ATM film that would
tell you more than you know now from Earth based?
SPEAKER I think I'll turn it over to -
SPEAKER Well, ATM as you recall, makes obser-
vations in quite a number of wavelengths. So that the ATM will
take data which is complimentary to this. This is a picture
in one wavelength and hydrogen up in the red end of the spectrum.
ATM takes a - pictures well above this from Dr. MacQueen's instru-
ment out in the corona. So we'll be able to see the further
development of this surge out into the outermost reaches of
the corona. Also, the ultraviolet instruments and the X-ray
instruments will be able to observe any ultraviolet or X-ray
structure associated with this particular event. And from that,
number of observations over quite a range of wavelengths, we
want to be able to put together the physical conditions that are
represented by this. I mean what is the temperature? What is
SL-III PC79C-2
Time: 02:02 CDT
9/6/73

the density? How does the magnetic field hold it in? How
is it moving? How does it develop? How is the energy
stored in that particular phenomena? Understanding what
the processes are, and how they change, then the objective,
of course, is to work backwards from that and try to under-
stand how the event originated. What are the mechanisms
which allow that amount of energy to be released in that
kind of way?
PAO Any other questions? Howard.
QUERY What - you talk about this energy that's
being stored up. What type of energy is this?
SPEAKER Well, it's really, probably the nature
of the energy storage isn't well known. It is thought in
by some to be magnetic - magnetic energy stored in the
magnetic configuration, which then is for some reason is
perturbed, it triggers, and the energy is released in the - it
can cause large, large dynamic fluctuations in the conditions
of the solar atmosphere around it. The density in a flare, the
local plasma which is normally at a low density, several
million degrees in the quiet corona, the density can go up
by orders of magnitude and the temperature in a flare
can go from several million degrees to say a billion. And
again, these temperatures, there's no approach to equilibrium
so that these are - are not what you'd call a - an equilibrium
thermal equilibrium event. They are very anomalous
behaviors, particle accelerations not unlike an explosion.
PAO Any other questions? Jim.
QUERY Yes. Is the - is the simple implication
that if you understood how this energy is stored and
released -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-79D/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/6/73

QUERY is the simple implication that if


you understood how this energy is stored and released that
there would be some hope of reproducing it on earth?
SPEAKER Yes. I think this is true in most areas
of pure scientific research which is what the ATM is. One
tries to understand the natural phenomena. What are the laws
that govern these kinds of phenomena? Once these are understood
then the engineering can take over, developmental engineering
can take over and understanding the phenomena and can begin
to say okay how do we use this kind of a - of a phenomena these
kinds of laws of physics to try to produce things to benefit
mankind or sometimes not benefit mankind. But certainly
to take these physical laws and find applications for them.
SPEAKER There's one other spin-off on this,
maybe I didn't stress enough is that once we learn how of
where happens we can predict when and where it will happen
and we can therefore take advance warning of things that will
happen at earth. And we are in the prediction business and
this one spin-off we'd like to have out of ATe. We have
a lot of customers who like power companies who would like
to know when a geomagnetic storm is going to take place so
that they can adjust their longline power transformers so
they won't trip out when a big surge hits the earth. And
supersonic transport for instance, they are flying high
enough so that particles that would be coming in from a
large flare would be hazardous to the crew and the passengers.
And it also goes ture for the space program. We supported
Apollo, much the same principle as we are doing here today
is looking at events that happen mostly in the west limb.
And predicting what the particle precipitation will be near earth.
And this going to continue, I'm sure through shuttle as
well. Because shuttle will be above the major part of the
earth's atmosphere. And so, we're looking into the a - into
ATM as an answer to a lot of questions and that's one we
would be interested in.
QUERY One other thing, this X class flare,
that was seen early this morning. How does that compare
to a - say the biggest flare that's ever seen or -
SPEAKER Okay. Some of the biggest flares, we've
seen or the biggest ones that we have seen this solar cycle.
Occurred in August, of 1972. And unfortunately, those
events where larger than the expected largest flares and
the monitors we had on spacecraft were all exceeded on two
of the events, which means they exceeded something like
X5 and this was an XI event. And so it was at least 5 times
stronger than this one. But we don't know how much stronger.
Because was - it saturated and those produced
protons, we had a good aurora and if anybody was flying
out in space they'd have been pretty sick, pretty fast.
SL-III PC-79D/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/6/73

QUERY T want to make sure that I understand


correctly that on this particular X class flare, you don't
expect any geomagnetic storms or but from other - all the
other activity that has been going on, that is what is
causing some disruptions?
SPEAKER Right. We're having geomagnetic storms
at this time. Due to all the activity that - that's has
occurred. We should be coming into a quiet part of the
27-day solar cycle as far as geomagnetic activity is concerned.
However, this - these regions have come up - quite fast,
in fact some of them are 5 - 4 or 5 days old and have caused
a lot of perturbations in the Earth's magnetic field and as
a consequence, we see aurora. Which AI Bean mentioned
I think yesterday.
SPEAKER In fact if you look at this H-alpha
picture from this morning, we have the east limb, and the
west limb, you can see that there is a lot of activity from
the center towards the - towards the west limb. But it
looks like our old friend the quiet Sun is coming back
because the whole northern hemisphere on the east limb is
just very very quiet.
SPEAKER Like we expected.
SPEAKER Like we'd expected.
PAO Go ahead there.
QUERY In one of the briefings before the Skylab
p missions, I don't know who said this but it was one of the
PIs I believe. Skylah - the statement more or less, was
Skylab was add more information, more knowledge about the
Sun and is -

END OF TAPE

r_
SL III PC-79E/I
TIME: 02:02 CDT
9/6/73

QUERY - who said this, but it was one of the


Pls, I believe. Skylab - the statement more or less was
Skylab was going to add more information, more knowledge
about the Sun than has been learned in decades, more than one
decade of solar observation from the ground and from OSO. Is
that pretty much true and can you just expand on that right
now ?
SPEAKER Well, obviously one of us said that. No,
it must have been someone else. ATM - I think that the
statement is basically true. ATM is equipped to make better
and more observations than have been made in total before
on the Sun's observations. The particular strength, as
was pointed out, is not only in the size of the instruments
and their spaclal resolution of the individual instruments,
but in the fact that we are observing many wavelength ranges
simultaneously, which has not been possible in any previous
space mission. Previous space missions have had, say, an
ultraviolet instrument and an X-ray instrument, or an X-ray
instrument and a white light coronagraph. But never have
we had H-alpha white light coronagraph, X-ray instrument,
two ultraviolet instruments, UV monitors, all observing
the Sun at the same time. And then when you take that sort
of team of experiments and back it up with the coordinated
observations that are being made on the ground, it's llke
the year of the quiet Sun. There were a number of inter-
national organizations which sponsored coordinated approaches
to some phenomena. ATM is not doing that in such an organ-
ized way, but we do have something like a couple of hundred
ground based observers in over 13 countries, who are making
coordinated observations with ATM. So there is really an
informal, but very definitely world wide set of observations
being coordinated with ATM, so if you put ATM observations
together with the stuff that's being observed from the
ground simultaneously, yes, I think we will have more data
and better data from this one Skylab mission than in the
total of past missions.
QUERY Have you got any new insights as to the
relationship between solar activity and climatic changes
on Earth?
REEVES I don't think we have any new information
on that as of yet. We're trying to piece it all together.
One of the goals that we have is to put that solar activity
into - with respect as far as the Earth is concerned. There is -
You're aware that there is the relationship between Sun
spot cycles the number of Sun spots and tree rings, and
flood conditions, and ithere is also with the weather, the
atmospheric pressures and it was born out in the August
event there may even be an imput as far as navigation of
SL III MC-79E/2
TIME: 02:02 CDT
9/6/73

homing pigeons, for instance, they're disrupted as far as


their navigation ability as during a magnetic storm. But
as far as new information, we have not increased that at
this point.
SPEAKER I think there is an important point here,
though, and that is that it hasn't been until this mission
that we've had, as Dr. Reeves just told you, the breadth
of observations as they occur on the Sun, and of course,
we're continually observing with megatometers and the like
what happens on the Earth, but we even understanding what
goes on at the Sun, followed by what goes on at the Earth,
we still don't understand, at this time, how the event is
transferred from the Sun to the Earth. And we hope that
the excellent correlative observations that we will have at
the end of the Skylab mission on both the Sun and the Earth
and interplanetary satellites, the collaborative programs
that we have with interplanetary satellite people will allow
us to understand the dynamics of how the stuff gets from
the Sun to the Earth, and understand the bridge between the
Sun and the Earth.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC79F/I
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14/02 GMT
._ 9/6/73

(SPEAKER CONT'D) - - will allow us to understand the


dynamics of how the stuff gets from the sun to the earth
and understand the bridge between the sun and the earth.
And I think that indeed will make a significant contribution
along those lines when we put the sum total of the Skylab data
together with the sum total of the interplanetary and earth
observations over this 8 month period.
PAO Howard.
QUERY As you mentioned it looks like the
quiet sun will be coming back how many days you think that'll
before we get back to it?
SPEAKER Looks like about a week and things are
going to be awfully quiet again.
SPEAKER Now one week from today this will be all
gone. It takes 7 days for the front for half the front
surface to rotate out. In 7 days active region 12, 59 and
i0 will be gone, 19 will be still there but coming back
there's nothing that of any consequence coming back on the
east limb. Of course - -
SPEAKER We'll be following these things continuously
now over the next 7 days as they go towards the llmb.
Studying them on the disc, studying them as they transient
toward the discs, you Iget two views of it, it's like a
front view and a profile and you can learn a great deal more
about having watching something as it - if you get several
points of view of it. You can see it structure versus
height you can see how it's changing. So we're quite
interested not only in observing flares or these features
as they're in the center of the disc but also to observe
them as they transient particularly the west limb.
SPEAKER One other quick statement with regards
to that. And that is, it's quite clear that the corona the
solar corona, the outer solar corona isn't behaving like a
minimum solar corona should behave and I say should in quotes
a minimum is characterized by some - lots of corona down
near the equator of the sun outward. We have seen nothing
like that on any of the TV monitor pictures that have been
down-llnked or any of our SL-II data, so in a very real sense
even when the quiet side of the sun presents itself to us
the corona over that quiet side of the sun isn't what we
would have conjectured it to be a quiet corona and that's we
think gonna be a very interesting study trying to understand
just why that's so.
SPEAKER And it may very well be of course that
our reasons for what we expected to see are just pure wrong.
SPEAKER That has been know to happen.
SPEAKER (Laughter).
SL-III PC79F/2
Time: 2:02 CDT, 14/02 GMT
9/6/73

SPEAKER The sun may not be different than the


quiet sun it just may be what the quiet sun is but our
state of information even in solar physics which has been
observed from space quite a few years it's really very
incomplete.
SPEAKER There is one the index we use for
solar cycles is a sunspot number and this peaked out several
years ago and if you project where we were say before
Skylab, to where the solar mlnumlm should be should be
sometime 74, 75, this abnormality here that we got right
now will make a dent in that but it's an average and if
may indeed be on the downward side we may hit bottom in
74-75. It's just a little spurt the sun puts out once in
a while.
PAO Do you have a question?
QUERY One is a real first grade question.
How do you know what's going on the back side of the sun.
SPEAKER (Laughter). Spere -
SPEAKER (Laughter).
QUERY How do you know it's quiet?
SPEAKER Well, we
QUERY Are you just guessing or what?
SPEAKER No, we aren't guessing from -
QUERY Extrapolating from what?
SPEAKER Extrapolating from what -
QUERY Extrapolating from what's going on the
front side.
SPEAKER That's right. We look at things that
are departing the west limb for one and if things are quiet
we assume they will be quiet coming back and if they're
growing like 13 was growing it'll be back in - by September
20th, it should be back on the east limb and we would expect
something to be there even an active little region or the
remnants of one which is a white structure that lays out
here. That is the best indication we have for what's on
the back side it just extrapolate what we see disappearing
we also have other indications the sun has preferred
longitudes for where things should happen there are certain
sectors where the sun should be active and certan sections
where it should not, and we base this on how it rotated
several rotations it just turns out again that this is the
old active longitude of several months ago before Skylab
coming back, so if for no other reason this side will be active
the back side will be quite for that, and besides we have
not seen anything of any consequence go over that's due back.
SPEAKER We can't see anything of consequence
above the east limb if it were some lots of activity it was
just about to come over the east llmb then we will see the -

END OF TAPE
SL III MC-79G/I
TIME: 02:02 CDT
9/6/73

SPEAKER anything of consequence above the east


llmb. If there was some lots of activity, it was just about
to come over the east limb, then we would see this in the
XUV monitors, or the green llne corona meters from the
ground, and they're Just not there.
SPEAKER I have some XUV down-link here if you -
PAO We have a question from Howard here.
QUERY With all this activity going on, is it
conceivable you could get it a X-4 or X-5 flare in the
next few days, and would it pose any danger to the astronauts
up there?
SPEAKER There is - I'ii answer the last question
first. There is minimum danger to the astronauts. They're
inside the Earth's magnetosphere and it takes quite a bit
of energy to propagate straight in to the magnetosphers.
There is - to put it in perspective, the August events,
which was the biggest of the cycle, would have caused some
consequence to a Skylab astronaut outside the vehicle if
he was on EVA, for instance, however the shielding inside the
vehicle is adequate and if things really got bad, he
could go into the CSM, which has even more shielding. The
prediction of activity between now and when these things
rotate off, which is in about 7 days, is we still predict
X-type flares to occur in any of three regions, and again
we've expected things to happen in region 9, for instance,
ever since we've seen it come over, and it hasn't done that
much. Again, our predictions are maybe, more guess work
than anything else, but we do look at the signature of the -
in H-Alpha, for instance, and in the magnetogram and see
what is happening on a kind of a large scale, and as things
happen, we feel we have a more intuitive feeling of might
happen the next day, maybe the next two days, and we also
have a lot of backlog experience of other regions and other
months of solar activity, and This region for instance, looks
llke it could develop into a proton-type producing region.
The events of August, for instance, were of a spot something
like that, and so to answer your first question there is
a pretty good chance of an X-ray, X-class flare before
west limb transients of these regions.
SPEAKER In fact, we hope there is.
SPEAKER I have a slx-pack of Coors riding on that
one. (Laughter)
PAO Any other questions? I know you are all
anxious to get back and check out the data. Thanks very
much for coming.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 6, 1972
4:30 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Charles Lewis, Flight Director


Bill Mayes, PAO

PC-80
f_
/

SL-III PC80A/I
Time: 16:30 CDT, 41/21:30 GMT
/-.,, 9/6/73

PAO Okay, gentlemen, today Flight Director


Chuck Lewis is with us and he'll make a statement and then
we'll take up question. Chuck.
LEWIS Okay, in the systems areas we've had no
systems problems we've encountered again the star tracker
shutter anomaly that's occurred before. The shutter sticks
open we've had it in the past and it's cleared up and we're
hopeful that it will clear up again. So we're using a
special procedure now to protect the star tracker and since
the door is open. It shouldn't be any problem. Basically
today's flight plan was more ATM solar work and we're going
into a EREP pass now, as a matter fact I imagine they're into
that. This pass over the states - this pass is basically over
southern California, Arizona, through the Mid-West up to
the Great Lakes. And that's all I have on today; tomorrow
we have a two EREP passes planned. We've got one short data
take pass over Spain in Southern Europe, only about a 9 min-
ute data take time and then in the afternoon we have another
pass over the United States, Just south of this ground track
that's all I've got is a summary.
QUERY Chuck, one of them this morning was kind
of complaining about it was getting a little cold in the
sleeping quarters, I guess because the Beta angle
the way it is now and the Beta angle seems to be getting lower
-- can we expect a lot of cool air in those cabins in the next few
days and what will that do to the power as far as turning
heaters on?
LEWIS Well, you may have heard the crew comment
it was a little cool down there for working and they were
wearing jackets but they thought it was real great for their sleep
period. We have the power for the heaters - for the heaters if
they're necessary we're not to that point yet and I don't
really foresee any problem it may get a little cooler and the
heaters might be required but we've got power to handle that
so it should be no problem. And the beta angle as it changes
yes as it increases we can expect the overall structure
to warm up somewhat.
QUERY Last Saturday, A1 Bean said something
about he wished he could stay another 10 days, today he said
something about he wished that there were another mission or 2 for
Skylab. Did anything llke that ever been discussed even
casually over there in between passes in the MOCR, or is any-
body really thinking about that; beginning to study it,
another mission or extending either one of these two?
LEWIS Some thought has been given to it and
we're not going to extend this mission nor do I know of
any plans for a mission post Skylab-IV.
QUERY I think you said last night there

F •
SL-III PCg0A/2
Time: 16:30 CDT, 41/21:30 GMT
9/6/73

was a possibility of (garble) maybe it was the day before,


said that they might do the - one of the space manufacturing
experiments tomorrow, M518, is that - I didn't notice it
on the flight plan anyplace that we got?
LEWIS I t is planned and I'm looking now to
see. I don't see it on tomorrow's flight plan I know that
the procedures we had are being reworked somewhat and that
will be done tonight so they'll probably Just waiting until
they get the procedures finalized before they schedule it.
But it is still planned.
PAO Any other questions?
PAO I guess that makes a shorty. Thank
you gentlemen.
LEWIS Well I guess you got a good briefing on
the AT - on the solar activity.
PAO I really didn't anticipate they'd have
a change-of-shift after that.

END 0 F TAPE

f
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Solar Activity Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 7, 1973
2:02 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Jim Milligan, MSFC, SO56 Principal Investigator


Joe Hirman, NOAA
Ed Medal, PAO

PC-81
SL-III PCSIA/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

PAO . .. solar activity briefing today and


our participants are to my immediate right, Jim MilliKan
from the Marshall Space Flight Center, Principal Investigator
for the S056 X-ray telescope; and down on the end, Joe Hirman,
who was here yesterday from the National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration. We're going - we've got some
slides to show, and Joe's got some explanations, and then
we'll let Jim answer some specific questions about ATM. So
Joe go ahead.
HIRMAN 0_y, can I have the first slide, please?
This is just a picture of what the event looked llke yesterday
and we put them up here for reference. The event today turned
out to be the same - about the same size in the X-ray spectrum,
however, it was a lot bigger both visually and in the radio
waves. And you didn't see this yesterday but this is the
spray we had - the surge we had on the west limb from a small
region that went over. To the next slide please. This is
today's picture taken on - at - doing the flare at 12:02
today from the Canary Islands in Spain. This is a small
observatory located off the west coast of Afrela. And here
you can see in region 09, a very large segment of the Sun
is very bright. It's enhanced - to give you some idea how
large that is, that is about 17 times the - the cross sectional
area of the Earth, this area here that was enhanced. This is the
r biggest optically the biggest flare we've had during ATM
and perhaps the biggest for this entire year. It produced
X-rays the size that we seen yesterday. The radio emission
was around 300 flux units which is not very significant.
However, there are additional things that make it quite
important and - if I could have the next slide please. Here
you can see an enlargement at various wavelengths of the
area you see in the other picture. This is the Sun spot,
this little black area here. You can see it better up here.
This dark - the dark thing in front of here is a small filament,
a black feature seen on the dese and it disappeared with
the flare and the little white areas is the flare itself.
And it's significant because the parallel ribbon type structure
you see here indicates that the flare was perhaps a producer of
high energy protons. These kind of map out the configuration
of the magnetic field. And we also got part of the Sun spot
covered - you can probably see it best up here. This Sun
spot is covered which indicates very high energy plasma. And
within 30 minutes after this event, we've got particles at the Earth
from the Sun, which means something like maybe i/bth the speed of
light. The high energy protons made it from the Sun to
the Earth as a consequence of this flare. We also, at the

F ¸
SL-III PC81A/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

time of the flare, got a confirmation both by X-ray satillites


of a very intense X-ray event, and also on the ground by
shortwave fadeout and other ionospheric disturbances that were
going on at the time. So we knew that there was something
quite intense going on. The event by the time, I think, Skylab
picked it up was already halfway down the - the intensity
in the X-rays. However, optically it lasted over 2 hours;
the area was bright. Could I have the second slide again,
please. This area was - portions of this were bright for
2 hours after the flare. And with the arrival of the particles
and subsequent particles that arrive maybe in the next 2 days,
we should probably have an aurora maybe at the - you could
see it at the latitude of Chicago for instance, maybe in
about 48 hours. Again we'll have geomagnetic activity enough
maybe to cause some power line disruption in high latitudes
maybe up in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. There would be
sufficient changes in the geomagnetic field to perhaps trip
over - overloaded power lines. And to give you some idea again
from yesterday, we discussed how much energy is in this flare.
We figured out that if you consider the total usage of each
person in the United States per year in energy, that is
not only electric energy but everything else used and his car,
you could probably run everything in the United States and
the rest of the world combined for 500 years on the energy
that was given out in this individual flare. So it was
quite quite big in all parameters. The only one that it was
_- lacking in was the radio. It was rather low on the radio profile
which indicates that the particles

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-81B/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

SPEAKER So it was quite big in all perimeters.


The only one that it was lacking in was the radios, rather low
on the radio profile which indicates that the particles that
were emitted were not as intense as in other flares. I think
with that I can turn it over to Jim, and he can discuss the
ATM.

MILLIGAN Okay, I think we had an experience today


that demonstrates the usefulness of a man in space. We were
faced with a situation this morning where the first report
came to us about the flare shortly after crew wake up, and
it occurred I guess about 25 minutes or 30 minutes before the
crew was scheduled to go to the ATM panel. The report came
in to us from NOAA while we were over the ground station at
Guam. The next ground station we were going to have was
over Vanguard at about, I guess 20 minutes later or
something of that sort. And we did not get the message in time
to uplink anything to the crew about this event. And when it
first happened, we were not sure that it was a big event. We
did not discover that it was a big event until we left Guam.
But we were faced with the situation where the crew was going
to arrive at the panel, and we had no way of giving them any
instructions or anything of this sort, and everybody was pretty
' excited. And we had a communication problem at Vanguard
that you may or may not know about. We could not have any
voice uplinked to the crew. So there was a lot of hair pulling
_ and everything down on the ground hoping that the crew got
to the panel and they would do the right thing. And as usual
they got to the panel and did the right thing and got
everything going just right. And they were on the flare just at
the moment that they got to the panel. And everybody was pretty
excited about it. If it had been an unmanned satellite and
there had been a communication problem we wouldn't have gotten
much. But I think it really demonstrated the capability
of a man being close to the instrumentation and being able to
react in real time with a high band width of information that he
has got available to him. And the crew really did a beautiful
Job this morning, and just observed the flare just exactly the way
everybody wanted them to do it. And I think it was a very good
experience from that point of view. And here is another demon-
stration that man can really do a useful job upstairs. With
that I think I'd just llke to drop and if there are any ques-
tions or anything of this sort, I'd be glad to try to answer
them.

PAO Do you have anything else for us, Joe?


HIP.MAN No, I handed out copies of the pictures,
and also a description of how sequentially the things happened
this morning as far as the observatories were concerned and
SL-III PC-81B/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

how we reacted to it and how the data came in.


PAO Okay, let's Just go ahead and take questions.
QUERY Joe, you said that the energy output from
the flare would, the figure you used was enough for the world
usage of 500 years.
HIRMAN That's correct.
QUERY And I had heard a figure higher than that.
HIRMAN Okay, when I used it as not in terms of
electrical power. Electrical power alone comes out to be something
like i0000 years or aomething like that. But in terms of
total energy usage of every man, woman and child in the world,
that's not only electricity, but cars and everything else.
The amount of energy is -in orders of magnitude it is something
like 500 years, which is I think a pretty healthy bunch of
energy.
QUERY What is the geometry involved here that
you based the fact that they may get power transmission dis-
ruptions in the higher latitudes rather than say somewhere
in the south?
HIRMAN Okay, we - if you go back to the Sun, the
region 09 is in a very good longitude to propagate particles
and dlstrubances from the Sun to the Earth. It Just happens
to be that's the almost exactly the right place to be if you
are going to do something. The one yesterday was too far
to the west, and this one Just happens to be lying right on
the tool cover right down towards the Earth. So we can expect
from that that the disturbance would propogate to the Earth.
Now if we measure the particles, which we did with the radio
profile and see how much the particles, how many particles we
have and how energetic they are, then we can, if we assume
some dlffussion towards the Earth, we can make some assumption
of how much of an impact that's going to have on the Earth,
or the magnetosphere of the Earth, and therefore geomagnetic
distrubances. It is not very pronounced, I mean the event
is not - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-81C/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

MILLIGAN - they are. And therefore, the


geomagnetic disturbances. It is not very pronounced - I
mean the event is not very large as far as the protons are
concerned. We got them within 30 minutes in the peaked
out, I think I got a peak of around - about an hour and
a half after the event, which means that most of the particles
got here already. And the rest of them that have caused
the subsequent substorms will get here maybe in the next
48 hours. And since it was not very strong, and it will
not cause much of a disturbance in the magnetosphere,
we can assume that the effects on the ground will only
get so far down from the aurora. If it's very intense then
the magnetosphere is very disturbed and you can see it all the
way down to here, perhaps. But it's not that strong of an
event. The power llne thing is for very high latitude
stations right underneath the auroral zones for instance
and any little changes they'll pick up on their power lines.
QUERY In this case was the crew alerted by
the radio noise burst monitor aboard the Skylab?
SPEAKER I think (garble) they were on the back side -
HIRMAN No. When they came around and initiated
ATM this morning for the first pass, they turned on the
television and turned on all of the sensors and immediately
it was obvious that all the X-ray sensors were saturated
onboard. There was - First time they looked in TV they saw
a very large flare. So that's the way they went for it.
QUERY I think yesterday, we said that the
flare was X-I or some such thing, do we have a number on
that scale figured out?
MILLIGAN I mentioned - The X-rays were slightly
higher on this one than on the other one. We got X-I.4,
which indicates somewhat larger than yesterday's. Yesterday's
we did get confirmation this morning, was a X-l, just barely
an X-I. This one looks a little bit bigger, but what makes
this one different than yesterday's is that the decay time
the spectrum was very hot for a very long time. It - A
half an hour after the event it was still up in the M5 class, which
is only half way down the X-ray spectrum. It was still
very intense. And it's very broad in that you can see that
in the optical part. It was bright for like two hours.
SPEAKER I might just mention, rereading the
briefing from yesterday, the very last thing you had said
was you predicted that location just might flare sometime
in the next couple of days.
MILLIGAN Yeah. I'll pick that one up. In -
You brought up a subject that Maybe I should mention that.
We do have the five regions that we talked about yesterday
still visible on the Sun. This region that produced a flare
will be going over the west llmb in about three days.
SL-III PC-81C/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

_
/
And following that, we have - we'll have three other ones.
There is a chance that these other regions and the one that
produced this event today, could do it again. And I have
no beer running on the next one, but it's possible WeVre
thinking now that region 09 should produce at least one
M-class flare before west llmb and region 12, which was in
the middle of the disc, is declining, but if it rejuvenates
like some indications were today, that it was going to
redevelop, we could expect a large flare out of that and
also out of 19. So for the next week we still should expect
some activity. But I don't think it'll be as intense as
this. I think maybe this is the biggest one of all of
ATM.
QUERY Is this the most flare activity in this
period of time? I'm sorry, was that question just asked?
I was out. In this period of time is it more activity than
a year ago, August?
MILLIGAN No. A year ago August was the largest
event of the solar cycle. And it's unique in that way
that it all came from one region, and it was Just one big
region in the middle of the Sun and produced activity for
the whole transient of the crossing disc which was about
14 days. In the activity itself, each flare, some of them
were bigger than this, some of them were smaller, but it
produced a lot of them. But this is perhaps the biggest
since that time. Maybe not in X-rays but in optical size.
F_ HIRMAN But this is a very active time period
for this time in the solar cycle. It's very unusual.
PAO Did you want to make any comment on - -
MILLIGAN I mentioned once that the aurora of
the northern lights and we said that we could probably see
them down into the latitude of Chicago

END OF TAPE

f-
SL-III PC-81D/I
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

SPEAKER - - usual.
SPEAKER Did you want to make any comment on - -
SPEAKER I did mention once that the - the aurora
- the northern lights, we said we could probably see them
down into the latitude of Chicago at about - maybe tomorrow
night, the night after. The - the chances are pretty good
to have aurora, but just where, and to what latitude ex-
tent, we're speculating right now.
PAO Any other questions? One more here.
QUERY I believe that we might have discussed
this before, either yesterday or some other time, but, would
all this activity on the Sun have any effect or much effect
on the weather and on climate? Anything that you could -
we can point to, and you know, we can actually see, you know,

SPEAKER That's the thing that we're trying to


always put together, is the the environmental effect of
solar activity. The Sun does affect the Earth's weather,
as you can - you're probably aware of. There are changes
and some of the more subtle changes are the growth cycle
of trees, for instance, is very close resemblance to the sunspot
cycle. The floods in Africa, for instance, have also been
tied to that. But, individually thence, don't do that much.
It's about - let's see, I - I can't remember the exact figures,
but the individual events don't don't change the background
level of the Sun that much. You know, you've got to sum this
thing all over the entire surface of the Sun, and it is a
big jolt all of a sudden, but its a reaction at the Earth,
I mean the changes in the climate. _ You do get ionization
changes, which is perhaps the fastest and the most recognizable
change, in the upper atmosphere. But, climatic
changes - we still haven't tied that in exactly how it re-
lates. There is that broad change with sunspot cycle, which
is ll-year modulation of climatic conditions, but individual
flares, we haven't really nailed it down. There are people
that think that happens, like people who think people commit
suicide more often, and things like that. There was one - there's a
study being made of airplane crashes as a function of geo-
magnetic activity. And certain people won't fly in an air-
plane if there's a vague storm going on, for instance.
PAO Any other questions? Want to add any-
thing else? Jim?
MILLIGAN No, I don't think so, other than what
Joe was alluding to when he was talking about the solar
modulation and the weather or the climate. One has to
remember that these events that we're talking about occur
in the wavelength region where most the energy is not
being produced, but they are very energetic particles that
SL-III PC-81D/2
Time: 14:02 CDT
9/7/73

come from the Sun llke the protons that came in this morning.
And there's a lot of - hard radiation, photon-type
radiation, light waves that come in at the shorter wavelengths,
which affect the Earth's upper atmosphere and the ionization
and chemical balance in the upper atmosphere. And somehow,
it appears as though this has some sort of a modulation effect
over a long-term period on the climate, because of this -
this ll-year cycle. But, it's a very, very difficult thing
to sort out. It's a very, very compllcated physical process,
and it's going to take many, many years before one can really
get a hand on - because the Sun's just a - you know, a catalyst,
or a modulator in the system, and it takes a while for - to
determine what's really going on in a situation llke this.
QUERY Because of all this activity and everything
that's been taking place, how close are the ATM telescopes
to being out of film?
MILLIGAN A lot closer today than they were yes-
terday. (Laughter) I mean, we had a - a small argument in
the A - I mean in the room today, I mean, among various PI groups,
because everybody wanted to get this data real bad, but they
knew if they got this data real bad they were hurting their
chances for data - you know, towards the end of the mission.
And so there were some pretty good arguments going on - you
know, do they want to operate, don't they want to operate,
and as a result, we sent some bad messages up to the crew,
because people had second thoughts about the messages they
sent up. Everybody was hoping for a real big event, but gee -
they'd like to have a little bit more film. Some of the
experiments are running tight on consumables, there's Just
no question about it, and we're going to have to very
carefully budget it from here on in. But, I don't think
anybody's very unhappy about that, because we've all got
Just fantastic data this mission. It's just ideal. I think
we're beginning to feel like the EREP people, and the ERTS
people. We're getting such a load of data back that we're
really going to have a problem analyzing it and getting the
information out to the scientific community. We're really
going to have a data management problem on our hand. We've
got a lot more data than we thought we were going to get,
when we go into the when - -

END OF TAPE
SL III PC-81E/I
TIME: 14:02 CDT
i-_ 9/7/73

SPEAKER - that we're really going to have a


problem analysing and getting the information outside to the
community. We're really going to have a data management problem
on our hand. Welve got a lot more data than we thought we
were going to get, when we went into this mission. I mean,
right now, we're what, 210 or 220 hours of manned ATM time
on this mission and we had thought we were going to get
about 180 under optimum conditions when we started SL III,
and we're still got two weeks left.
SPEAKER The Sun will be quiet in a week.
SPEAKER Hopefully. If it isnlt, we're not going
to be able to observe it.
PAO Any more questions. Okay. Thank you
very much for coming.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 7, 1973
4:33 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Charles Lewis, Flight Director


Guy Jackson, PAO

PC-82
-r V

SL-III PC-82A/I
Time: 16:33 CDT
9/7/73

PAO We're ready to start the change-of-shlft


briefing and you all know Charles Lewis.
LEWIS Okay, a quick summary - you're probably
already aware, we scrubbed the - the morning EREP pass in
favor of flare support, and I believe you had a conference
earlier today with regard to that, so, other than that, the
flight plans have been nominal today. ATM support, and we've
got EREP 19, I guess, was just completed here a few minutes
ago. And no systems problems to report. Tomorrow we have
one EREP pass, EREP 19, which is similar to the one that
we ran today. The track - ground track's a little bit further
south. And that's all I have. Open for any questions.
PAO Ready for questions, then.
QUERY If the EREP tomorrow is 19, and the
one this afternoon was 18, and you cancelled 17, we're not
going sequentially, then?
LEWIS Well, let me go back. We'll probably
redeslgnate the one this afternoon, 18 - 17A, and redeslgnate
the one tomorrow, 18A. It's Just a matter of bookkeeping.
I think that's the way they do it. (Laughter)
QUERY Okay, on the ATM film budget, given that
they progress, or continue exposing film at th@ rate they
have been, are they going - when are they going to run out?
And, also, what are the prospects for usln_ some of the film
that I understand was thought to be degraded, that's already
F aboard?
LEWIS I couldn't - I can't answer the first
question. I don't know, really, what rate they're using it.
Of course they're using a lot of it to - in supporting the
flares, but film usage varies. It's not a constant kind of
thing. I really couldn't answer when they run out if they
continued at that rate, but probably much sooner than the
next EVA to resupply the equipment. And your second question,
must have reference to some of the film that they brought
up out of the plenum today, and none of that was ATM film.
That was some EREP film, and - mostly EREP film, and I think
there was one SO19 film canister the SL-II film canister
they brought up. We don't know, now, whether that film is
really usable. There's studies underway now to see if we
want to try to use that film. For example, they may say,
well, we don't think it's usable, bring some of it back and
check it. If it turns out it is, we have it for SL IV. We
are looking at possibly using some of the SL IV, 400-foot
magazine DACS for EREP and corollary. That's being looked
at now. Everybody's a bit short on consumables, they're
having to plan very carefully to have, you know, enough for
SL-III PC-82A/2
Time: 16:33 CDT
9/7/73

Y SL-III. We're looking at that now.


QUERY If - if they run out of ATM film_ earller_
than expected, or if it looks like they're going to, is
there - are there any prospects of having an early EVA?
LEWIS We haven't thought about that yet, but
I guess it's a possibility we might have an earlier EVA, and
I guess basically, what we'd do there is use some of the film
that was allocated for the unmanned period while the crew
was there and have less than during the unmanned period, but
we haven't addressed that yet. It's a possibility.
QUERY There wouldn't he any constraint doing
the EVA earlier except you would have a little less film
from then would you?
LEWIS I don't believe so. I don't believe
any constraint, I dontt think.
QUERY Okay, and also, we've got a double back
to back EREP Sunday, on the crew day off. So much for that.
And, are we in the position with the batteries that had
degraded that we don't - we still don't have to do any worries
about even back-to-back?
LEWIS Well, we still worry, hut we believe,
with powering down some of the heaters and so forth, with
- and adjustments to the power conditioning group, voltages
that we can handle back-to-back. But if we already develop
ground procedures and command heaters off and we also have
onboard procedures for the crew to power down if we need
/-_ that for additional power down, so we think we can handle
it without any problem.
QUERY What about the I haven't heard anymore,
I guess, in the last two days on the any metal processing
that we're going to do the work with the alloys and all. Do
you have any idea if that's - when it's going to come up
in the flight plan, or if it is?
LEWIS No, I know it is

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-82B/I
Time: 16:33 CDT
9/7/73

QUERY -- work with those alloys and all, do you


f have any idea if that's - when it's going to come up in the
flight plan or if it is?
LEWIS No, I know it is. I don't know when. I
was looking on tomorrow's flight plan and I don't see it. But
I believe we've got the procedure finalized and it's probably
just a matter of scheduling it, right now. And I don't see
it on tomorrows flight plan. So in the next few days, I will
expect to see that scheduled.
QUERY Looking ahead, I guess we got - 2 weeks,
is that all.
LEWIS We've got 17 days.
QUERY 17 days (laugh)
LEWIS Something llke that.
QUERY - to go. What are some of the more exciting
things from your stand point that are coming up on flight, any
thing other - that - that we know's coming up, we can't predict
the flares and all, what about some of the more exciting things?
LEWIS I guess the thing that a lot of us are
looking at now as we approach the end of Skylab-3 is what do
we want to do in preparation for Skylab-4. We still got a few
systems, we'd llke to troubleshoot. So we're addressing - what
additional systems troubleshooting we'd like to do, for additional
data, before the SL-3 crew leaves. For example, we're considering
additional CBRM battery verification test, get another data
point on those, to see in fact they are degrading with time.
We're thinking about possibly troubleshooting the secondary
r_
refrigeration system again. So there is a long list of those
that we're - we're looking at and trying to decide one way or
the other on and then getting them scheduled. Cause as we
approach the end of the mission, wetre running out of time to
schedule that type thing. So that's what we've got in work.
As far as the science is concerned, of course we're going to be
busy with EREP, up until the end of the flight and ATM. And
I don't really see anything you know outstanding you know,
stands out among in the science world continuation what we're
doing now.
PAO Any further questions here? We received
three questions from Mary Bubb at the Cape. And Mary we'll
save your medical questions until we have some - a doctor here and
your solar flare question until we have an ATM man present. The
first question, Mary asked was "Are there any new thoughts as
to the launch date of the Gerry Carr crew? And is there any
chance a rescue mission will he needed?
LEWIS I believe l_ovember 9th is the earliest for
the SL-4 launch assuming that we have no additional problems
with the S the vehicle. And at the present time we don't
SL-III PC-82B/2
Time: 16:33 CDT
9/7/73

F_" intend to use the rescue vehicle. Of course there is always


a chance if we have additional problems with the - the - the
command service module. We may elect to do that. Right now
we donlt,
PAO Okay. Thank you.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston_ Texas

SL-III Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 8, 1973
4:30 p.m. CDT

PARTICIPANTS:

Charles Lewls_ Flight Director


David Garrett_ PAO

PC-83
SL III PC-83A/I
TIME: 16:32 CDT
9/8/73

PAO Okay, we're ready to get started this


afternoon with the change of shift briefing. We have with
us the off-golng Flight Director, Chuck Lewis.
LEWIS Okay. There are no new developments
is the systems area, and I might Just briefly run through
the Flight Plan. Today we scrubbed the EREP pass due to
weather. In addition, I was asked yesterday about the 518
metals experiment that we'd planned to de. Was asked if it
would be done today. It was scheduled today, I Just overlooked
that. So that is being done, and basically the activity
today is to melt two emissible alloys, those that normally
don't mix well on Earth, to see if the mixing characteristics
are any different in zero g. Tomorrow is the crew day off.
But it turns out, there's really not much time off. We've -
actually have a full ATM schedule tomorrow, as a matter
of fact, we have one very early pass on the Commander and
we have one on the SPT that extends into his normal sleep
period. In addition to that, we have a back-to-back EREP
pass for tomorrow. So we have got really a full up Flight Plan.
We do have some showers scheduled, but little off duty time, but
this was as the crew requested. That's all I have. I might
go back and reiterate one thing. It was Bruce yesterday - He
just arrived - he yesterday asked me about the 518 experiment.
I'd overlooked that when I looked at the Flight Plan. It
was scheduled for today and should have been done. I was
explaining that the activity today on 518 was to melt two
alloys that are emisslble normally here on Earth. They won't
mix well, and see what the mixing characteristics are in zero g.
And that's basically it.
PAO Have any questions?
QUERY Chuck, hopefully you haven't covered
this, but I asked you yesterday how we stood on the EREP,
with the cancellations of two. Now we've had three. We're
running shorter on days and I'm Just wondering, are the
EREP starting to get a little itchy back there or does it
look like we'll get them all in?
LEW_S Well, they don't like to see the bad
weather and I still think we have a good chance of getting
them all in, but of course, that's dependent upon weather.
We are looking at possibly three EREP passes on day 45. But
that's just being looked at in a gross sense at this time.
The one early morning pass and a back-to-back pass in the
afternoon. But it turned out in that case they were three
very good passes and they were looking at the systems support
area new, power and so forth to see if that would be acceptable.
I don't think we're that concerned yet. Of course, if the
weather keeps this up, then I guess we would get concerned.
QUERY Did - Are we going to do - I guess that's
SL III PC-83A/2
TIME: 16:32 CDT
9/8/73

that's what - an ETC run over Africa in the morning?


LEWIS That's scheduled in the morning early.
It requires an early crew wakeup. However, the weather
right now is not favorable. That may he scrubbed, due to
weather.
QUERY Who has got to get up early and do that?
LEWIS Well SPT and the Pilot are required for
the run. The SPT operates the Earth terrain camera and
we've got the Pilot operating TV. And we went ahead and
woke the Commander up for an early morning ATM pass.
QUERY So everybody's going to get up about
15 minutes early then?
LEWIS Yes. I don't know exactly how much
earlier they would get up that morning. I don't have that
in front of me, but it is early. It's early wakeup.
QUERY Is there any indication that - was there
any indication on the air-to-ground that you heard, that
Jack had gotten the 518 done or was doin G it?
LEWIS I don't think we had any comment at all
today on 518. Normally you'd set that up and get the
experiment operating, but youtd have to walt some number of
hours before you have any resultsj so as far as we know, he
should have gotten the preps completed on 518.
QUERY Was there any indication that A1 had a
f- chance to do any of the TVI2 or - I guess it was what? TV2,
or whatever they call it?
LEWIS TV inventory?
QUERY TV inventory, I guess.
LEWIS Well, we had a rather bad plan for our
TV inventory. We went to the alternate Flight Plan when we
scrubbed the EREP, and they had the TV inventory scheduled,
but the video tape recorder was not really available as soon
as he needed it. So we asked him to go ahead if he thought he
could do it, and put about 15 minutes on it - on the VTR
midday, so we could take that off, and another 15 minutes
later today, in the presleep. We could take that off and that's
being worked right now. I don't know whether we're going to
get it or not.
PAO If there are no further questions, thank
you.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Corollary briefing


Johnson Space Center
September ii, 1973
1:59 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Jack Waite Corollary Experiments


Robert Randle - T002 Experiments
Guy Jackson - PAO

PC-85
SL-III PC-85A/I
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

PAO Okay, we're ready to start the briefing


for this afternoon. And on my far right is Jack Waite in
charge of corollary experiments. And on my immediate right
is Mr. Robert Randell who will discuss the T002 experiment.
And first we'll have a statement from Jack.
WAITE Skylab, thus far has been very good
from the experiments point of view. We've accomplished quite
a bit more to date than we had planned premisslon on the
corollary, and ATM, and most of the other experiments. We
had originally scheduled about 27 corollary experiments for
the SL-3 mission. We have now added another eight. We've
shifted the M518 series utilizing the multipurpose furnace. These
have been shifted from SL-4 to SL-3. We have completed eleven,
well, we've completed more than i00 percent of the objective
on eleven of the experiments thus far. And several of the
experiments are passive to be returned at the end of SL-3 and
SL-4. We do plan to complete the objectives on the remaining
corollary, remaining twenty-four corollary during the remainder
of this mission. So far we've completed 50 percent over what
we had planned on the astronaut maneuvering unit, M509 and on
S019, the UV astronomy experiment. We've accomplished almost double
' what we'd planned. We started over the weekend on the space
processing experiments, the M518 series. And thus far we
completed on Sunday the immiscible alloy compositions, the M557,
and we completed today the M562 crystal growth experiment
_-_ of Dr. Gatos. And we are starting today on the M566, the
aluminum copper eutectics experiment. The way things are
going now I predict that we will be able to complete the
M518 series on SL-3 instead of SL-4 as we had planned. So I
think without any more general discussion, I'd like to intro-
duce Mr. Robert Randell, Bob, who is the principle investigator
on T002 manual navigation and sightlngs. By the way, Bob is
from Ames Research Center.
RANDLE The T002 experiment is a joint NASA DOD
experiment with NASA being interested in midcourse navigation.
That is to say the accuracy that is attainable with a space
sextant for midcourse navigation. And the Air Force is in-
terested in low Earth orbit navigation. And we're both interested
in a backup emergency manual navigation system, either as
backup navigation or as an adjunct to primary systems. We
were combined into one experiment. The Air Force was originally
the D009, and we had so many things in common that they put
us together, and that's worked out fine. The Air Force will
be taking, will be making slghtings on the angle between stars
and Earth horizon. They will be measuring with another instru-
ment called a stadimeter, the altitude above the Earth. It
SL-III PC-85A/2
Time: 13:59 CDT

z__ 9/ii/73

does this by measuring the Earth's curvature. They will


take these sightlngs and see how well they can determine the
orbit from the angles that the astronaut measures. Our sightings
are for midcourse navigation. They fit into a little bit
different navigation scheme, and ordinarily would be plugged in
to an onboard computer. If for instance ground communications
were lost. So we are interested in the accuracy and the
precision of the sitings. And we can evaluate what the
astronaut is doing up there.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC85B/I
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

RANDLE it's ground communication were lost.


So we're interested in the - the accuracy in the precision
of the sitings and we can evaluate what the astronaut is
doing up there. We have done analytical studies at Ames
Research Center, which tell us what kind of accuracy and
precision are required for midcourse navigation. And today,
astronaut Jack Lousma has been meeting those accuracy require-
ments. Which is to say, that for instance, if he were re-
turning from a Mars mission with let's say a Venus swingby,
with his accuracy, his siting accuracy, he would, he would
hit an appropriate reentry corridor well over 99 percent of
the time with this accuracy. I didn't mention the kinds of
sitings that the mideourse navigation is involved with. We're
taking the angle between two stars. _e's siting with the
sextant, the angle between two stars. Now this tells you
nothing about your position in the solar system because it's con-
stant throughout the solar system. But we use it as a performance
standard. The second kind of siting is measuring with the
sextant, the angular subtense of the Moon. It's angular
girth. And from this kind of siting, you will get navigational
information because it's a ranging site. And third kind, that's
the angle between which is changing between the star and the
Moon, one of the limbs, the edge of the Moon. And so far,
on or- we've had samples of all these sitings. As a matter
of fact, Jack is doing a star-star this morning and a star-Moon
siting today. And the accuracy oh those has been on the order
of a mean error of 5 arc seconds and a standard deviation or
spread. We're talking about precision here of 10 arc seconds,
which is extremely good and good enough for interplanetary
navigation. So, we have 20 - I think 28 of 34 functional
objectives complete and should complete this week. And all
in all, it's been a veery successful mission.
PAO Okay. I guess we're ready for questions.
Okay, Hal.
QUERY Yeah, I came in a little late. What -
what stars has he been using as - for this type of thing?
RANDLE What stars?
QUERY Yes.
KANDLE We have a list of 37 navigational stars.
Standard stars that are used in the Apollo program. We're
using those in this - the particular ones he's been using have
been Nunki, Fomalhaut, Diphda - I think that's all. Incidently
those are - two of those are very dim stars. Very difficult
to site them. Fomalhaut is quite bright.
QUERY What magnitude - what's the lowest magni-
tude of star you can use on something like this?
RANDLE Oh, if it can - if it's a star of Moon
SL-III PC85B/2
Time: 13:59 CDT,
9/11/73

siting. If you can filter down the Moon, and we have filters
on the sextant, I guess you could go up to about a magnitude
of 4 or down to a magnitude of 4. The very dim star. It gets
a little shaky. The dimmer it gets, the shakier it gets.
QUERY One more. Does he do this does he have
to do this in the nighttime? Or can he do it during daylight
hours?
RANDLE These are done during the night passes.
QUERY Well then how does that effect, say a
planetary mission. Do you have sufficient nighttime when
you're out on a planetary mission to do something like this?
RANDLE Yes. Right, right. Cause you can - you
can - like for instance, the Moon. You can always see that
and planets. The stadlmeter sltlngs are taken on the dayside
Those are dayside passes. That's the ranging sitlngs.
QUERY And you say that keep finish up this
week - are more of these planned on the next mission, SL-4?
RANDLE We would like to go again because we have
only a sample of one_ which has been quite good, hut that's
still only one person. Sample. A lot of data on one person.
QUERY Not firm for SL-4 yet, though?
RANDLE I don't think so, no.
PA0 Any further questions? Okay. Thank you,
gentlemen.
f MS How also are the corollaries going?
WAITE I - it told Just a little hit about this,
but I can go back over that for you but we're well ahead of
what we had planned pre-misslon.

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-85C/I
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

WAITE - - I can go back over that for you but we'll


we're well - well ahead of what we had planned premission by this
time. I think that you can say that across the board not only for
corollaries. We've - we've - we had originally planned to do the -
conduct 27 corollary experiments during SL-III. We have added
the multipurpose(furnace, those eleven experiments this time
because we had - the crew was getting far enough ahead that
we had an opportunity to do this and even though the crew was
not trained, Jack Lousma had participated in the preliminary
design, the critical design reviews and actually was - the - very
active in the layout of control and displays for the furnace
control. So Jack was very much up to speed on this and we - he
has been operating this without any glitches at all even though
he had had no training, he was very familiar with the hardware
so this is going real good. We have completed two of those
experiments sin - one Sunday and then one today. The M557 and the
M562, the 560 - M566 is started today. The way things are going
now if we don't run into any glitches, I would not be surprised
to see us com- We are - were putting eight of these on the
shopping llst for this mission, I would not be surprised, if we
are not able to schedule even all eleven of those this mission.
So that's going real good. Several experiments, we've
been able to schedule even more than was planned pre-mission
on Karl Henize's S019, the UV stellar astronomy experiment, which
is a very good experiment. Karl - the french had a film problem
on S183. Carl has been able on the S019 to complete almost
twice the originally planned objectives, end getting some very
good data, and since that the French had had a film problem this
time and their - their main carousel film - Dr. Henize offered
them the use of his instrument and some of his frames and so
actually the French have taken advantage of this offer and they
are - they're operating Karl's - they're operating Karl's
experiment, at times to give the French some data. We will
have the French film problem solved. We're working to help them
out on this and they will be back on on SL-IV. On SL-III they
have the data - they had on S183 Just for an example, they
had three different band widths, that they were investigating.
One was accomplished with a data acquisition camera, mounted
to the instrument. So we are running the S183 DAC only, and
we're also giving the French the opportunity to use about 30 frames
from Karl Henize's which - which they appreciated very much. So
that's going very good. M509, the maneuvering unit, astronaut
maneuvering unit, we have accomplished about 50 per cent more
on that than had been planned pre-mlsslon. Owen Garriott was
not trained on the 509 but was very interested in flying it and
he!s had the opportunity to - to operate the M509 so that's
getting a good bit of attention. The way things are going
SL-III PC-85C/2
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

now, it's a very good mission for experiments and I think


we'll complete even a good bit more than we had planned by the
end of SL-III.
QUERY This is something that I just thought of,
what do you - do we know now about manufacturing in space that
we didn't know before? That's pretty general, but - -
WAITE Yes. I really - I'ii try to just generally
answer that but you know first off we - we are heavily involved
now in - in studing the samples brought back on the metals melt
the 551, the exothermic braze, the 552 and sphere forming the 553
the three that we've conducted on SL-III and I hope by the time we com-
plete the MI8 series) that we can have a press conference, where we'll
cover the results to date on the M512 experiments, those three
experiments, plus - of course we won't have any data on the 518)
those eleven experiments til we get the samples back but we
can give you a little rundown on what is expected to be
accomplished and give you a report on how many of those we've
been able to run, but I'd - I'd like for you to be talking
with our experts on that space manufacturing area hut we were -
we were quite pleased with the - with the

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-85D/I
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

SPEAKER give you a report on how many of those


we've been able to run. But I would like for you to be
talking with our experts on that space manufacturing area.
But we were quite pleased with the metals melt experiment there
I think we have learned a good bit about - well, we've really
determined that there will be no problem in welding struc-
tures in zero gravity. We had some very successful welds.
And our principle investigators could get a lot more specific.
But in the distant future when we would want to build up large
structures in space, there is no reason, there is no problem
that we can foresee with the weld materials, and we tried
several different materials, stainless steel, aluminum. And
no problems there at all. On the exothermic braze,
I think it is a real interesting experiment. It is tube join-
ing where you have an exothermic package. And it would be very
good for joining tubular structures to build up antennaes
or whatnot in orbit. We obtained - the brazing of the tube
joints was better than we've ever, you know, better than we've
ever accomplished on Earth. We don't have that many samples,
and you know, we can do satisfactory tube joining on Earth with
this exothermie process. You know, this is a process that some-
times is used in very hard to get to places, you know air-
craft structures and so on. So it was as good or possibly
even better than we're able to join the tubes on Earth. So
we at least I think have confirmed that we're not going to
have many problems. Now there are some basic research activity
going on that I hope we can report on to you Just a little
later on the 512 experiments. Do we have a time, Jack? We're
trying to schedule a press conference. I hope we do this
in the next, I hope in the next couple of weeks we can cover
this whole area of space processing for you. And have some
of the appropriate principle investigators present.
QUERY Lousma was reporting some trouble with the
thing heating up a little blt earlier than expected. Is
that solved, or is there any problem at all?
RANDELL It was problem at all, not any problem at all.
And we were - the first time we did operate with, this
was on 562, the first time we had both heater elements on
it went up a little bit faster than Jack had anticipated
from the training, but nothing that surprised our people back
here on the ground working the hardware problem. So far
the M557, the 562, and thus far on the 566, everything is
going just great.
QUERY What is 556?
SL-III PC-85D/2
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

RANDELL This 566 is this aluminum copper eutectic


experiment.
QUERY What is he trying to do with it?
RANDELL On these, I would like to defer that. I
wish I could tell you more about these. We have, let me just
say generally, we have on these eleven experiments we have
some of our well-known metalurgists in this country doing
various basic research projects experiments, and also in the crystal
growth area. So most of them are in those two categories.
And we have three foreign investigators in this group, some
several in this country. You know, for example, Dr. Gattos at MIT
has the M562 experiment, so I really can't give you a lot of
detail on those hut I surely do promise you a press conference
covering those shortly.
QUERY On a different subject. Is there - are
there any more runs on the M509 or the TO20 (garble)
RAN DELL On TO20, we have one scheduled now for,
I believe it's day 48. That's a suited mode. One interesting
thing on that. On TO20 and on M509_ when we had the suited
mode with the umbilical, this did cause a pretty good perturb-
ance, so_ we were first trying to send up a cable that
would offer much less - an umbilical that would offer much
less resistance to their movement. What they're doing, in
fact, I heard A1 Bean come in over the llne today. They are
taking an onboerd cable and stripping it - the outer shield
off and going down so that all that's remaining is the oxygen
line to reduce the perturbence there, and that will be com-
pleted before we run. The suited mode will be run with this
modified umbilical that'll offer very little resistance to
movement. So, we have two runs, I believe, on TO20, remaining.
And M509, as I think I've pointed out, we've completed about
150 percent of the planned objectives, but I think the crew would
like to run again if they're - if there is time. Both the
experiments are performed real well. The TO20, after the
first run, we did do some modifications to the restraints,
at the

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC85E/I
Time: 13:59 CDT
9/11/73

SPEAKER - - TO20 after the first run, we did


do some modifications to the restraints on the recommenda-
tion of the crew, but then after we changed the restraints
it operated very satisfactory.
WAITE Can I make one more statement on TO02
before we leave? I probably left out the most important
thing. We were very interested in what happens to siting
performance as a function of time in weightlessness. So we
spread out our sitinBs across the 56-day mission, and thus
far, we have seen absolutely no deterioration of performance.
PAO Okay. Any further questions?
Thank you, gentlemen.

END OF TAPE

f_
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September I0, 1973
4:39 p.m. CDT

PARTICIPANTS:

Phil Shaffer, Flight Director


Guy Jackson, PAO

PC-84
SL-III PC-84A/I
Time: 16:39 CDT
98/10/73

PAO Okay, we're ready now start the change


of shift briefing and you all know off-going Flight Director
Phil Shaffer. He'll make the usual statement and then we'll
|lave the questions and answers.
SHAFFER Okay, today was back to back EREPs in
the truer since of the word. They were EREP 19 and EREP 20
where taken across the continental U.S. The first one started
oh southwest of Houston down towards the Mexican border
and went up across whatever you call the - the Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois states, what do you call those - middle America -
PAO Mid-west.
SHAFFER Midwest, went up across - up across the
northeast. The Houston area was socked in with the weather
as you know. The most of the northeast was clear and then the
weather socked in again up at the - up at the tip of the U.S.
We took data from some of the larger cities, with the instruments,
Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. We took data of Lake Erie
and Ontario and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The - the equipment
all worked very well. The crew had no problems. The second
pass was northwest of the first pass and terms of where it
crossed, it came up across Las - Just south of Las Vegas and
it - some more cloud problems again, but in general that was
a much clearer pass and again no problems. We figured - So
we had a couple of real good passes there. Medical run this
morning was M092/171 which was exercised with no problems
with the exception of - a vent that we have not tracked down
yet. And it was of a - minor consequence the a - we don' t
know the source of the vent. Our best bet is that the waste
seal around the subject was - released for some very short
period of time like 15 seconds. We got a rapid Delta-P alert
out of that which indicated that we had a fairly significant
leak in the cabin that that device is triggered by 0.i psi
per minute. However, it - since it was only there for 15 seconds
or so, the cabin pressure went down a very small amount not
very much at all. However, it did go down enough that we could
see it. We can't find anything will cause that with the
exception of the the waste seal on the M092 subject being
broken. And it was - by the time the crew got to the alert
panel to see what had caused the caution and warning, it had
gone away and we were unable to find anything. Although
the telemetry data did verify that we had - had had a pressure
of - among them short spike kind of pressure also for just
a little while. Another M092 run this evening and ATM work
of I guess about the only thing that's keeping us out of
ATM work now is the EREP and that's that's a fair trade
because it was two or three weeks there when we couldn't do
the EREP, Sun angles were wrong. And late this evening, TV
SL-III PC84A/2
Time: 16:39 CDT
_ 9/10/73

inventory which I really didn't get a chance to get into today


to see exactly what they were doing. But I think they are
just recording the inside of the vehicle and taking data
of what's there for the ground controllers to do some counting
from and to understand what the configuration of the vehicle
is now. Tomorrow is the EREP, and EREP and EREP. The day
starts out early. The crew will have to get up a little bit
early and will do a data take over Europe and that will be
followed immediately on the backside of that day pass with
what's is called a - EREP CAL maneuver. And what we do there
is point the EREP instruments at the moon, since it's a
known light source and gives us known responses and we take
that data and are able to adjust the EREP data we're getting
from the earth, where different lighting conditions, etc.
Then about 2 revs later, we start into two more EREPs back
to back, just like we had today. The ATM operations are
fitted in amoung those things and a medical run on the commander
tomorrow. Today we had -

END OF TAPE
. =

SL III PC-84B/I
TIME: 16:39 CDT
9/10/73

SHAFFER - and a medical run on the Commander


tomorrow. Today we had - we did the PLT today, we'll do
the SPT this evening, the Commander tomorrow evening. It's
going to be a nice busy day. Questions?
PAO Bruce Ricks.
QUERY Phil, is this the first time we've done
three EREPS in a day?
SHAFFER It will be. Yes. Tomorrow will be the
first time. - It's almost like four EREPs. I mean there
are four distinctly different data takes involved tomorrow.
And they are distinctly different attitude maneuvers. They
We do the first data take and then get back into solar inertial
to reinitialize the attitude reference system, and we set
there for 2 or 3 minutes getting the reference system
initialized and then we go into another maneuver sequence
to point the instruments at the Moon. And then in between
the back-to-back EREPs, we go back to solar inertial there
for battery charging purposes. So it's llke four EREPs.
QUERY Do you know what the European targets
are tomorrow morning?
SHAFFER Sorry (garble) I sure enough don't know.
QUERY Well, just in a general sense, where
are these back-to-back, Phil. And the second thing. Is
._ - there any concern about the use of your batteries for four
EREPs?
SHAFFER Well, no, not really, Jim, the first
data take tends to be in the post noon part of the orbit.
The EREP CAL occurs on the backside of the orbit, when we
are in shade, anyway. Okay. And the second two EREPs in
the day are in the post noon part of the orbit, so we get
some solar input in the first part of the day orbit and
of course, as we do the maneuvers to and from you get Sun
incidence and as long as you have Sun incidence you have
some energy input. Now, on the second EREP pass today,
for instance, and they were the same way. At just before
sunset, our last station of the second EREP pass, we had
all of the ATM batteries except one i00 percent charged.
Okay, we did no power down today. We did power down the
heaters today, just to be conservative. Tomorrow requires
no power down on the part of the crew. We will probably
power down the heaters again, to be conservative, but these
passes, even this many of them are easier than the passes
we were doing a week ago. Those passes were on the morning
side of the orbit, and the batteries had to go through the
night side plus the low angle incidence of the EREP pass
itself.
QUERY _nd how about where those two are, the
back-to-back ones? I mean just in a general way.
/
p

SL III PC-84B/2
TIME: 16:39 CDT
F_. 9/10/7S

SHAFFER (garble) Let's see 19:30 for a data take.


I would guess, Jim, that they're going to be about 200 miles east
of the tracks we had today. And the tracks we had today
came up going northwest over the Huntsville area, and then
the next one was over about 6 or 700 miles, so we'll be in
between - We'll have a track tomorrow in between those two,
and then one east. We'll probably come up a little bit
south of Houston tomorrow on the first one. I'm figuring
that out in my head based on the times and of the data takes
and all.
QUERY I notice in this long ranEe forecast that
the EVA day is now day -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC84C]I
Time: 16:39 CDT
9/10/73
f_
QUERY - and this long range forecast that
the EVA day is now day 57, anything being planned for that
EVA except the change of the film?
SBAFFER Yeah, the - you know that S052, has a
little speck of contamination on the occulting disc that
we see in the data. And we intend to remove that. It - when
they took the ramp off of the SO56 instrument the one on
the door, apparently there was some little chips of paint
that were released when those bolts were undone and it may be
a little chip of that paint on the cceulting disc. So we
intend to clean that up. And - I think there was some solar
array samples that were left out in the middle EVA, material
that will be picked up and brought back for analysis.
PAO Jim Malone?
QUERY As you close in on the final 2 weeks of
this mission and you're getting close to all EREP's and
you've gotten about - are getting close to what the ATM
people wanted, in fact more than some of them wanted.
SHAFFER Yeah. We were - -
QUERY The medical things are going smoothly
and apparently are going to get all of those. Are you
getting any requests from any of these or other areas to
do something additional or something that wasn't planned
before the mission?
SHAFFER Well I'm sure you know Jim, that they've
w done part of the SL-IV work already intentionally
because of the Kohoutek viewing which was not preplanned
for Skylah-IV, andthese have been TO20 runs and M509 runs
we're doing some of the space manufacturing experiments now
we have some of those in works and the general name of that
is M518 and I can't tell you anything more than it's material
working. So we are doing those kinds of things, okay, we're
taking - of course we'll end up doing a few more EREP passes
than were preplanned and obviously we're doing more ATM work
than was preplanned. The - we are using some not very much
of the SL-IV consumables in the way of tape and film to do
some of those things, some of the - I think it's SO63,
corollary work is some of tha_ film is beln R used. But
we're trying to satisfy the requirements that we had for
two purposes, you know we're there, and we have an opportunity
to do them plus we're going to need some time now we believe
for SL-IV to take care of the Kohoutek viewing. Am I saying
that right? Kohoutek viewing.
SPEAKER (Laughter).
SHAFFER Okay.
SPEAKER Not really, Kohoutek.
SHAFFER Okay.
SPEAKER I don't know which one is right.
SL-III PC84C/2
Time: 16:39 CDT
9/10/73

SHAFFER Just had the accent on the wrong


syllable then.
QUERY Did they ever say how the pass over
Africa went this morning?
SPEAKER I never heard a word from theem, at least
when I was listening.
SHAFFER The pass over Africa this morning.
SPEAKER They took the drought area.
SHAFFER T hate to tell you this, we didn't go
over Africa this morning. You mean with the EREP instruments
or or the handheld.
SPEAKER They got them up early.
SPEAKER No, just the handheld.
SHAFFER No, I didn't. I don't know that probably
occurred before I came on watch. No, I don't. I didn't hear.
PAO Any further questions?
SHAFFER I can't believe Maloney is going to
let me off this easy. I was told by the way that you
specifically made sure that I was coming over here. Is
that right?
SPEAKER (Garble).
SHAPFER (Laughter). Okay. Okay.
PAO Any more questions. Okay_ thank you,
gentlemen.
SPEAKER (Garble) it's something we should ask
you then.
SHAEFER No, you always such a joy to talk to.
PAO (Laughter).

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
r_- Housto_ Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September ii, 1973
5:05 pm CDT

Participants:

Phil Shaffer, Flight Director


David Garrett, PAO

PC-86
SL-III PC86A/I
Time: 17:05 CDT
9/11/73

PAO We're ready to start with our change-of-


shift briefing today. We have with us the off-going Flight
Director Phil Shaffer.
SHAFFER Okay_ yesterday I told you gentlemen that
we had four EREP data takes scheduled for today in fact only
did three of them, EREP 22, was scrubbed because of the weather
there was not enough sites available to us to make it worth-
while doing that so we did scrub that. The first EREP pass
of the day, actually had better weather. That was the one
that went across Europe, started out in the Atlantic and went
out across Spain, Germany and Switzerland. And that weather
was - I'd guess about 20 percent cloud cover but we were
predicting a minimum of 40 or maybe as much as 70 but that
worked very well. And we got some good data from that we
believe. The EREP cal maneuver where we point the instruments
at the Moon went very well. I think today we saw some of
the most positive results of hooking up the six pack, the new
gyros. In that when they finished the maneuver to point at
the moon on the backside of the earth, the pointinB was
essentially perfect. And on SL II, and on the previous run
that we did during SL III we had errors on an order of half
a degree, but today we did that maneuver work just fine.
And I would attribute that to the new gyros. The EREP pass
that we have just now completed was again I think the weather
was a little bit better than we expected it to be. And that
was a good pass again with plenty of data no problems. The
SO82A door gave us some problems today and if you'll remember
we removed the ramp from that during the last EVA, that had
been sticking. And today it was not completely obvious
whether it was not open or not closed. But in fact it wasn't
where it was suppose to he. And the crew was very very busy
and it was going to take quite a while so the ground ran a
malfuction procedure on that door cycling the logic and
cycling the motors while the crew got ready for and executed
the EREP pass. Which I believe was a very nice demonstration
of the kinds of things we can do together. And we now are
operating that door in the two motor mode, meaning that both
the primary and the secondary motors are being used to open
and close the door it's at this time working nominally with
nominal transients times between open and close and we will
continue that two motor operation that was the end item fall
back when the thing got so bound up that one motor
wouldn't work it anymore. We do not know why it's sticking
with the ramp off. Our last guess is essentially one way
but the door is working normally. Medical run this evening
and that's about the day. Tomorrow is three EREP passes they're
not back-to-back. There's a - there's two revs between the
/

SL-III PC86A/2
Time: 17:05 CDT
/- 9/ii/73

first and second and one rev between the second and third.
And I never had time to find where the ground tracks were.
(Chuckle), I thought that - I don't have any idea where those
things are at this time. Quite a bit of ATM viewing time
with medical run on the M092/93 on the SPT. One of the things
we're going to do tomorrow is - one of the things we had
scheduled for tomorrow was the modification of one of the
life support umbillcals that's used during the TO20 runs.
And what we're doing with that is removing the Beta cloth
and taking part of it off, I believe we're taking the tubing
that carries the water cooling to the crewmen. And we're
taking that off to try to make that tubing - that umbilical
more flexible. If you'll remember during the previous TO20
runs it was giving him some problems both the 509 and the TO20
runs it gave him some problems because it had a awful lot
of inertia that's on and it was stiff. So we're trying to
get that thing up a lot more flexible by removing that - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC'86B/I
Time: 17:05 CDT
9111173

SHAFFER - - even with 20 runs it gave him some


problems because it had a - an awful lot of inertia of its
own and it was stiff. So we're trying to get that thing up
a lot more flexible by removing the beta cloth and taking
part of it away that's not needed. We got into that today,
we got started modifying that umbilical, because the crew
had some extra time and were ready to get started into it.
And it - was not completely obvious that we were able to
get all of the water that's in that umbilical and in the
pressure control units. We most probably did. And then
the thing that stopped us a little bit is that, Alan wasn't
sure that we had enough airflow through that to indicate
that we're removing all of the water. And there is some
potential that the way we did it on the ground may have used
a different sized orifice than what was used inflight. And
it may take a little longer. And we're in the process of
verifying that we, in fact, believe that those umbilicals
are - are clear of water - or that hardware's clear of water.
The reason we want that done is that, right now_ our first
option plan for the up-coming EVA is to not do it with water
cooling as we've done the previous ErAs. The - we would
propose to cool the - the two outside astronauts with 02 flow
only, which is much - which is essentially the way we did the
transearth EVAs in Apollo. That EVA astronaut had no water
cooling. It was gas flow only, to remove the generated heat.
One of the problems that we've had in the pursuit of that
is, how do you keep the - the crewman that's inside cool,
who is also suited. And in in work new is some testing,
which essentially hooks up a fan. They - they call them
PLV fans, post-landlng vent fans from Apollo, that is pro-
viding the bulk of the circulation in the cabin. Hooking
that up to his suit and just passing cabin air across
him, to provide some cooling and - we believe that that
will be completely adequate since he doesn't have much of
a workload on him at all. That it will - that will keep
him acceptably cool. I would not try to indicate to you
guys that the gas cooling does as well as the liquid cooling.
It does not, but because EVA-Ill is a low workload on the
outside crewmen and not much of a workload at all on the
inside crewman, we think that that will be adequate. We're
proposing the gas-cooled EVA because of our problems with
the coolant loops. Now as you guys know, the primary coolant
loop has has leaked empty now and is not usable. The
secondary loop has the thermal control valve apparently stuck
in a cold position. And what we're concerned about is that
if we hit that loop with a heat load associated with it's
normal cooling, plus an EVA, that we may drive that valve even

f_
SL-III PC-86B/2
Time: 17:05 CDT
9111173
f-

colder. And if the valve gets too cold, then the loop can
freeze up. And that's, at this point, not a risk that we're
willing to take as long as we have an acceptable alternate
to that procedure. So, that just about winds me up. Ques-
tions?
PAO Bruce?
QUERY A couple of things, Phil. First, with
the airflow, or gas cooling, will this mean that the crew-
men are going to have to take more rest periods, or not
stay out as long, even if they want to stay out a little
while longer, for other tasks or anything, or -
SHAFFER Yes.
QUERY You have to be, essentially, a nominal
hour and a half, or whatever the EVA - -
SHAFFER No, no, no. The nominal's about 3 hours,
and we have the ability to do a 1-hour extension on that,
depending on how the crew's responding to that environment.
One of the things that, and I really don't want to get into
this too much, but one of the things that you have to be
concerned about is that the body will perspire as it gets
too warm, and it is entirely possible to fatigue the sweat
glands, if you will, to the point that they that they
really might not provide as much cooling as is required.
So we are - we're go for the kind of EVA that we envisioned
for up to three - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-86C/I
Time: 17:05 CDT
f 9/11/73

SHAFFER - - cooling as is required. So, we're


go for the kind of EVA that we invisioned for three hours
and based on how the crew looks and feels. Then we may do a -
can do a one hour extension of that if it's required. But the
times that I'm aware of right now are three hours in evaluation
and then a potential extension of one hour required. We don't
think they need to get everything we need done a lot quicker
than that.
QUERY Well somewhere along the llne, I apparently
missed something, because I remember when we were talking
about a long time a go with you or some one - one of the
other flight directors, that when the primary loop was getting
close to getting shut down, that there was a point made that
it would not effect the EVA, because we could use the secondary
loop. Has - Would - With this valve sticking again, as I
remember, this is the same one that stuck last time, did
that happen after that?
SHAFFER The valve moved to a cooler position
during the last EVA, as a result of the heat load associated
with the EVA. It did not come back to a normal position.
Okay, and - See, when you start the coolant loop, the little
extra loop associated with the EVA, that loop is warm already
by itself. And if you hit the secondary coolant loop, with
that warm slug from the loop being passive, plus the crew-
f- man_ all at once, then the valve may try to go even more
cooler in response to that heat load and stay in a colder
position. If you'll remember on SL-2 after the first EVA,
that we had the sticky valves and we got things to the point
they were about to freeze up and we ended up having to put
heat. You know, we took the liquid cool garments and wrapped
them around the hot water tank and pumped hot fluid down on
the coolant loop to try to force the to get the valve to
mo - where we got to move the valve just to keep the loop
from freezing up. And we have a heater now that was carried
up on SL-III that was designed to circumvent that problem.
Unfortunately that heater draws about a thousand watts. And
you'd like not to have that steady state load, which again,
is what I was seriously considering - what at this point,
considering acceptable alternative to using the cool - water
coolant loop for EVA.
QUERY One last thing, I guess. Has AI Bean
said who's going outside and who's staying in, specifically?
And I know he was asked that the other day, and he didn't
have an answer right away. Also, the guy staying in with
his fan to cool him, in other words, it's not going to be
hooked up directly in his suit loop, because he doesn't have
his helmet and gloves on, is that - isn't he? - And so it's
be just kind blowing on him directly?
SL-III PC-86C/2
Time: 17:05 CDT
f- 9/11/73

SHAFFER I think, Jack is staying inside. But,


I wouldn't swear to that on a very large stack. But, I
think Alan and Owen are going outside. And the You know,
one of the interesting problems you've got now, with the
guy inside, do you want to pull air or push air? Okay?
And the inlets to the suit turns out, that if you push air
it comes in at - as (garble) to his extremities and
essentially comes into his suit, so that by the time the
air gets to his torso of his head it's already been warmed
by his hands and feet, and legs and arms. Okay, so that
makes you think you want to pull the air to get the cool
air - cooler cabin air coming by his head and down his
torso and going out the extremities. Unfortunately, the
efficiency of the fan goes down, if we pull through the
suit instead of push. So that's still part of the evalua-
tZon that has to be done on this - -
QUERY (Inaudible)
SHAFFER Yeah. But we've got one hose. (laughter)
QUERY The other night when Pete Conrad was
stopped by the console, Bean asked if he would sometime
between now and splashdown day fly the reentry or the
separation in reentry and so on in the simulator and make
sure everything's working all right. Is that being planned?
SHAFFER It will he done Monday.
f_ QUERY Be done Monday?
SHAFFER Yeah.
SHAFFER Yeah, I might add we will fly it ourselves
Sunday with Vance Brand and his guys, most likely.
PAO You have another question, Howard?
QUERY Yeah, well then will the - Let's see,
who'll be in there with Conrad on Monday?
SHAFFER Probably Vance. Probably Just the two
of them. I don't know who I don't know if they plan a
third one or who it would be. But I know Pete and Vance
will - will do that Monday.

END OF TAPE

F TM
SL-III PC86D/I
Time: 17:05 CDT
9/11/73

SHAFFER Pete and Vance will do that one day.


QUERY One more. Have the ATM investigators
indicated that we're pretty well near the end of this solar
flare activity cycle now? Are we back into a quiet sun or
we - -
SHAFFER Nobody has made a techinal input to me
concerning that. But I would we're at the beginning of it
- I do. I would guess based on the amount of activity we've
had in the last couple of weeks that we are beginning the
new ll-year cycle.
QUERY Well what I meant was they said that it would
probably be a week ago or so they said it would probably
be another week of fairly heavy activity and then it would
taper off. And we wouldn't see any for several days then or
then for some time. Cause they haven't said anything in the
last couple of days too much about flares and things llke
that?
SHAFFER Oh, yeah, but today we - Owen told
several times that there was a nice big loop coming around
the corner now that we took some data on so there's at least
that. (Chuckle).
SPEAKER (Chuckle).
QUERY Are Conrad and Brown flying the sim
because of the 2 sets of thrusters that are out?
PAO Yes. That's the reason.
SHAFFER Yes. You see the loss - not the loss they're
not lost. The we don't want to use those thrusters if we -
unless we need them unless we really have too, because they
do have some problems and instead of the 2 impulse what we
call 2 impulse entry sequence where you bring the orbit from
the 235 circular to the 235 by 90 and then 2 revs later
actually do the deorbit. With the - the reasons we do that is so
that we can use the RCS propulsion system to back up the SPS
and have plenty of response time. Okay, that is a very
conservative way to end the mission. In the trade offs what
we've done is put the extra time in front of de orbit and
SL-III are terminating with a single impulse SPSD orbit.
That is a change in the time line and of course a change i_
procedures plus the spacecraft in order to not use those -
the Bravo and Delta QUADS nominally, is very differently
configured. And it responds differently, and because the
Bravo and Delta QUADS are on opposite sides you've lost one
direction of attitude control in a normal configuration.
Now let me say that the end of the mike here is like the
center of gravity of the spacecraft those two thrusters are
hack hehind it, Bravo and Delta, Alfa and Charlle, and with
the center of gravity displaced you can translate with the
Alfa and Charlie thrusters and because the center of gravity
is displaced it gives you attitude control in the axis that
these thrusters would normally have given you. And we just
SL-III PC86D/2
Time: 17:05 CDT
9/11/73

want to go through all the checklists and all the procedures


to verify that we've got the vehicle configured to do that
function when it's required.
QUERY Oh, now before this Alfa and Charlie are
actually used for flight what will the Bean crew do to verify
that they're alive and well before they actually backoff from
the station?
SHAFFER On entry - entry minus 5 days. Five days
prior to entry day we will power up the spacecraft and
do what you see in the flight plans called entry minus 5
day checks. And that powers up all of the G&N the optics, the
platform, the computer, and the backup system, the SCS and
the gyros and EMS and we go through all the controls
modes and part of what we do there is what we call cold fire
checks. On both the SPS and the RCS and what's done there is
saflng those so that they can't really fire but then havin E
the different systems issue firing commands to - to be sure all
of that works. Then on entry day before we undoek we
essentially - we go through the same sequence only it is
it's not quite as compressed. Okay, and we go all the way through
and including firing the RCS both the Alfa Quad and the
Charlle Quad. And we watch the results of that firing - you know
there are several q's that the Jets have fired and the crew
can hear the valves, the solenoid valves and the thrusters fire
plus we will generate rates and we will see the momentum
f_ state of the SWS attitude control system change. And those
things will demonstrate that in fact those thrusters are
alive and well, electrical checks on entry minus 5 plumbing
checks, on entry day.
QUERY Well on the - -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-86E/I
Time: 17:05 CDT
9/11/73

SHAFFER - - as well. Electrical checks on


entry minus 5, plumbing checks on entry day.
QUERY Well, on the entry minus 5, you really
won't know on Alfa and Charlie if you've got the same kind
of problem you have on B and D.
SHAFFER Oh yes. It's - different symptoms. We
know now we don't have the problem of - well, we will know.
You're right. We won't know until we've opened the propellant
isolation valves and all of that stuff. But you don't have
fire the quads to find the problem you've got on Bravo and
Delta, because you see the leak.
QUERY But all you'll know on entry minus 5
really is - is whether your firing's going to work. In
other words, your firing sequence and firing.
SHAFFER The wires that go as fax as the quads
are still intact.
QUERY Yes.
SHAFFER We will not cycle the valves, and we will
not open the - excuse me, the valves between the the
tankage and the thrusters. Entry day is the proof of the
pudding. That's right.
QUERY Well, isn't it a valve problem with the
other two quads?
SHAFFER No sir. Bravo 3 is a valve problem.
The thrusters the quad is numbered i, 2, 3, 4, and the
number 3 thruster, the one that fires forward on Bravo quad,
is a valve problem, on the oxidizer side only. And it's
contaminated or something. Okay, and it leaks. On the
Delta side, I - it is not a valve problem. Our best estimate
is that we have a loose connection in the plumbing where
the the lines come from the tankage to the thruster dis-
tribution assembly. They - that tankage - yes.
QUERY One other thing. On this secondary loop,
with this cold valve. What's that going to do when it's
un - the station's unmanned?
SHAFFER Same thing it's doing now. The - the
valve is stuck in a position that's completely acceptable.
Now, we may find ourselves leaving some heaters on, turning
some heaters on, or some of that kind of thing to provide
a heat load for the system, but it's not anticipated to be
any problem at all. You know, the vehicle looks very much
llke an unmanned vehicle, if you will, when the crew's asleep.
Most of the stuff that's powered down during the unmanned
phase is powered down when they're asleep.
QUERY On these sims on Sunday and Monday, at
what point will they start them and what point will they
end them?
SL-III PC-86E/2
Time: 17:05 CDT
9/11/73

SHAFFER Sunday we'll pick up at completion of


the hatch work. Okay, the vehicle will all - will already
be powered up. Okay, and we pick up there, which is about
an hour before the hot fires. Okay, Monday - Monday I would
bet that they're going to pick up with a completely quieseency
ascend, and go through the full-blown configuration.
PAO Any further questions?
SHAFFER Howard, let me say one more thing. I
don't want to leave you with the wrong impression. I'm
running in SL-I_ sims Sunday. Okay, where this problem
does not exist. However, we have arranged the sim so that
it will look like the SL-III problem, and then we will respond
to that. Okay, I may very well do a two-impulse deorblt
like SL-IV and SL-III. But, when I get to that last impulse
I will have the problem that I got now. And the only difference
between those two is whether the - that maneuver is 18 seconds
long or i0 seconds long. With the problem of attitude con-
trol and vehicle configuration, and all of that, will be
identical. But it - yes. Even though the - the total profile
may be different. That will open your mind (garble)
QUERY Well, I - I don't really understand
the philosophy behind doing that if you really - if you're
really doing it for an SL-IV elm, which we presume the next
CSM won't have this problem, and Vance is doing it because
he's the backup for that, as I would see it.
SHAFFER For both.
QUERY Right. So, why put the problem of SL-III
in anSL-IV slm that you won't have?
SHAFFER Because the guys in the Mission Control
Center - -
QUERY It's for their benefit.
SHAFFER Roger that.
QUERY Thank yon. Okay. That's -
SHAFFER Yes. That's why they're - I'm sorry,
that's why I said when I said we're going to run that Sunday.
That means "we" for us guys on the ground. It's for us.
Yes.
PAO Anything else? Thank you.

END OF TAPE
SKYLAB NEWS CENTER
i--_ Houston, Texas

Skylab III - Change of Shift Briefing


Johnson Space Center
September 12, 1973
4:32 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Phil Shaffer, Flight Director


David Garrett, PAO

PC-87
SL-III PC-87A/I
Time: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

PA0 Okay. We're ready to get started with


our change-of-shift briefing this afternoon. We have with
us the off-going Flight Director, Phil Shaffer.
SHAFFER Okay. All the EREPs were done today.
And I know where they were now, I didn't know yesterday.
(Laughter) I'm ready for you guys. Okay. The first one
went up across Spain, Germany and France again, much like
the early one did yesterday, only it was about 200 miles
east of the one yesterday, same basic ground track. The
second EREP pass started in the Pacific, went across Central
Mexico, northern Gulf of Mexico, the southern states like
Georgia and Alabama and out across the northeastern states
just east of the Atlantic shore. And it went all the way
nearly to Newfoundland. The third EREP pass started out in
the Pacific again, about half way between Hawaii and the
West Coast and went way up north toward Butte Montana, and
Duluth, Minnesota, and into Canada, and terminated north of
Montreal about 300 miles. Crew obviously had a good time
with those passes. We got a lot of extra data just because
the crew found some of the sites with the S191, it's the
instrument with the viewfinder tracking system that they
can gimbal around. And they got us a lot of extra sites
with that. And all of the scientific data takes appear to
work very well. It was a nice day. ATM activity was very
much normal. The second ATM pass of the day, we changed
what they were going for. One of the observatories - Ramey?
Is there an observatory named Ramey? I think so. Did
discovered a cloud of, apparently, gas, something that had blown
off from the Sun, that was condensing back onto the Sun. And
we picked that up, parts of it about 2/10ths of the solar
radius out from the edge of the Sun and got some data on it,
condensing back into the solar corona. That's about it for
today. It was a nice day, relatively quiet day. Tomorrow - You want
me to tell you about tomorrow or you want me to wait? Okay.
Tomorrow is back to back EREP passes. And the first - I'm
sorry. The - Yeah, the first of those passes starts off
shore in the Pacific and comes up across Baja, and heads off
kind of toward Central America in a north/south sense. Comes
across E1 Paso and Amarillo, Kansas City, Chicago and ends
up again, north of Montreal. The second pass of the day
looks very much like the last pass today. Comes across
Reno, Nevada, Salt Lake City, Bismark, North Dakota, and up
into Canada, north of the Great Lakes, and again terminates north
of Montreal. There's a - I want to look at this beauty a
minute. We're using S190 B, to take some data in solar
inertial tomorrow, a little short pass, which we've done a
couple of times before. That's the Earth Terrain camera.
SL-III 87A/2
Time: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

And there's not anything especially exciting about that. It's


an opportunity to. Joe. Say again.
QUERY Where (inaudible)
SHAFFER I wish you hadn't asked me that.

END OF TAPE

F
SL III PC-87B/I
TIME: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

SHAFFER Say again.


QUERY Where - -
SHAFFER I wish you hadn't asked me that.
SHAFFER Aha, Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic. The pass
will start just southwest of Bermuda and go across the
Sargasso Sea, while a ship, looks llke the RV Knorr, is also
in the area taking some truth data at the same time.
QUERY Will you spell Knorr?
SHAFFER Knorr.
QUERY United States registry?
SHAFFER You got me. That's what I was having so much
trouble with. I hadn't ever seen it before. The - There's one medical
run tomorrow. ATM passes are scattered out across the day and
a TO20 run tomorrow. That's the foot controlled maneuvering
unit, if you'll remember, and we'll be using the life support
umbilical that I told you about yesterday that we were
stripping down to make more limber. That work is completed,
stripping that down and Alan says that it's very limber and
he's of the opinion now that it will be a great help in
evaluating that in a suited mode, because he won't have
so much disturbance from the suit. Won't have so much
disturbance from the umbilical while he's suited. Okay,
Questions?
QUERY times today, A1 was asking questions
about the entry maneuver, the separation and so on. What
f was he really concerned about? He kept using the term
DAS or something like that.
SHAFFER No, no. Today, we up-linked some more checklist
changes to the entry checklist and to his time line.
And the vast majority of those changes resulted from our
development of a different attitude control system for him
to use between the period that he undoeks, and does the
deorbit maneuver. In the guidance and navagation
system on the CMC, there are two DAPs. D-A-P. Digital Autopilot.
Okay. And one of those DAPs is used while they're docked
to the workshop to control the attitude of the orbital
assembly. The other DAP is used during the undocked phase,
and is only used to control the CSM alone. And the
characteristics of the vehicle responses to inputs changes
significantly as a function of what it's weight is and where
its center of gravity is relative to the control forces
and etc. And they vary so widely between CSM controlling
dock to the workshop and CSM alone that you can't put all
of that into one DAP, if you will, so you build two DAPs
that are essentially software routines that are in the
computer and then you tell it which one to use as a function
of your configuration. Now without the I'm sorry - I got to
tell you some more. The docked DAP, because you got the
SM sitting here and the workshop big, long beauty out here, the
center of gravity is a long ways away. And the little
rotational thrusters don't have much authority trying to
F move a CG that's out here, so what, in fact, you do, is
SL III PC-87B/2
TIME: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

try to translate the CSM, which gives it a no - a nice long


moment arm, you know, a big long lever to do attitude, so
the CSM is actually translating when it nominally controls
attitude of the workshop rather than rotating. Now, if
you remember from yesterday, I only got the Alfa and
Charley jets top and bottom that work, with the CG up here
at the mike, so we're telling the computer that it's really
still docked. Okay, but I've changed all the weights around
so that it does the right thing and it now will control,
trying to translate, in the same mode that we're using now,
just so they don't have to fly it all the time. So they use
the undocked or they use the docked DAP when they're coasting
and the undocked DAP when they get ready - of course, they'll
be in the undocked DAP for undocking and then they'll -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC87C/I
Time: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

(SHAFFER CONT'D) - - use the docked DAP when they're coasting and
undock dap when they get ready of course they will be in the
undock DAP - for undocking and then they will be in the
undock DAP for the ullage maneuver and retrofire and then
once we jettison the service module then we're back to a
completely normal configuration. But there's a whole bunch
of DAPs in there there's a Saturn DAP for launch phase to
fly, for the crew to take over control of the launch vehicle
and there's an entry DAP that's built only for just the command
module during entry. There and it's all function of
translating what the computer wants to do in to something
that there's a stable control system for the vehicle whatever
its configuration.
QUERY When you asked about the Alfa and Charlie
quads the - they asked something to be fed up to them did
- and I didn't quite understand what he was talking about
there either?
SHAFFER Something to be fed up to them. The thing
that we have not - let me st - I got to start over. We have
generated checklist changes that would he required should
he lose another thruster - another quad after undocking you
know now you got quads gone and a control problem is very
different, and we up-linked that as changes to his existing
checklist. And it's a bit awkward so what we have done is
_enerated a complete new checklist and it's complete in itself
in the end, that we're going to up-link to him to use in the
event that that should happen. Okay, and I'm sure that's what
he was asking for although I don't remember this specific
case the - I'm sure he said something like loss of Alfa or
Charlie quad y'all feed up on up and we promised it to him
later on this week, or over the weekend.
QUERY You get the impression that he's a little
concerned?
SHAFFER No, I don't get the impression he's
concerned at all. I get the distinct impression that he's
like all the rest of us he likes to have stuff in time to
smoke it over and think about it and understand it and he
wants to be prepared. And l've drawn a fine line between
being prepared and being concerned.
PAO Any more questions? Jim?
QUERY Do you expect the crew to get a go to
complete their mission through September 25, tomorrow?
SHAFFER I have absolutely no reason to think that
they won't.
QUERY And one other thing. Will they begin
this getting up at 2 a.m. Sunday, is that right?
SHAFFER Jim I don't know when that is we got so
SL-III PC87C/2
Time: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

many options of how to make the 4 hour circadian shift that


has to be made before the end of the mission and those are
still being traded off and I can't answer that. There's at
least 4 options that are contending or maybe 5 and I just -
I'd be speaking out of turn to even tell you which one has
got the best chance right now, cause I really don't know.
QUERY Well I understood why the first crew had
to begin getting up early because they had the morning
splashdown and all of that. But why is this crew and it's
so late in the day?
QUERY In other words they splash about 5:20 or
5:30 or something like that? They got the whole day in
front of them.
QUERY I see that I didn't make any point in that
(chuckle).
SHAFFER No that's all right I - -
QUERY You know what I mean?
SHAFFER Yeah, but we shifted 5 hours I think we
shifted 5 hours on SL-II and we'll have to shift 4 hours
on this mission.
QUERY But your splash is 7 or g hours later.
See that's the point it's late in the day.
SHAFFER Oh, no those are much larger Delta between
wakeup and splash than 7 hours.
QUERY Then this splash is going to be llke
7 hours later than the last splash, something llke that, I -
kind of forgotten but I'm pretty sure it's at least 7 hours
and as Jim said the last crew had to get up early because
they had a late morning or mid-mornlng splashdown but this
crew is not going to splash until late afternoon.
SHAFFER Well let's see - oh yeah, I'm goin_ to
have to nickel and dime you a little bit because I'm really
not prepared for that question. (Chuckle). The deactiva -

END OF TAPE
SL-III PC-87D/I
Time: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

SHAFFER Okay. Because I'm really not prepared


for that question. (Laughter) The deactivation time line
number i, was an hour longer for SL-III, because Alan wanted
it that way. Okay? The sleep period is an hour longer,
because it could be. You remember we only had 5-1/2 hours
sleep on SL-II. And we're looking at 6-1/2 to 7 hours this
time.
PAO Can you talk up just a little bit they're
having trouble.
SHAFFER Sure. Okay. It seems to me I'm coming
to work the same time I did on SL-III, or SL-II, to get
ready to do that. And it's about 6 hours, 7 hours, from
wake-up to undocking, in a nominal time, not in, you know,
the two impulse time line. And you have to - You have to
I'm about to give up.
QUERY How long from undocking to splash?
SHAFFER It would - In the - In SL-II, it was
five hours - -
QUERY On this one?
SHAFFER About 2-1/2 hours. But the wake-up
The wake-up time - And we didn't slip the wake-up time
because we took out that extra maneuver in there. We
left that basic time line, as it is, because that was all
timed to occur over ground stations and et cetera. The
turning off of the workshop and the turning on of the CSM.
And we chose to just preserve the extra pad. There's a
lot of free time in the time line. But the fact remains
that you've got to land when the spacecraft comes by
San _ Diego on that rev. Because, you know, you can't beat
that. There's no way to beat it. And we just, we're just
keeping the basic time line that we've trained to the same
with the extra time in it. It's pad time. Pure unadultrated
pad to use for whatever you want to, to be sure we got
everything squared away and ready to go.
QUERY Well are they going to get up early -
PAO Would you wait for the mike, please, if
you have a question.
QUERY I thought A1 had settled this all the
other night, when he said he didn't want to do any gradual
thing to get his circadian rhythm back in shape. He said
he just wanted to go up to the last day and then get up
four hours early.
SHAFFER Um-huh.
QUERY Didn't they accept that - -
SHAFFER That is a technical input. Let me tell
you the problem with that, Howard. The crew day, that day
is very long. Okay. The deactivation, the extra time that's

p_
SL-III PC87D/2
Time: 16:32 CDT
i 9/12/73

in it, the entry, and the medical protocol that is that


they go through after they get off on the ships. And it
turns out to be like a 21, 22-hour day. And at this point,
we try to evaluate just bow reasonable it is to go through
_ that kind of a day with four hours of sleep. And right off
you kind of think it's not too good a plan. So you start
looking at that in earlier time, to make a four hour shift.
Okay. And that's an option. Okay. Or, you could go in two
2-hour steps. Okay. Or, you could go in four 1-hour steps,
which was what the original proposal was that he doesn't
like. Okay. And, he doesn't like the four 1-hour steps.
And we think he, in retrospect won't like the one 4-hour
step. So the compromise is two 2-hour steps and what
days do you want to do them on. Now, you know, I can't
tell you what that is, or how it'll turn out. But it could
turn out any one of those four or five ways. In the end
after you trade off all those ramifications of picking any-
one of the plans.
PAO Got a question?
QUERY I'm still confused. You - They normally
get up at 6:00, they're going to land - Their orbit will
take them around so they'll land near San Diego around
5:30. That's about 11-1/2 hour day. You say 2-1/2 hours
after undock to splash, and about 5 hours prior to undock.
Okay. That's 7-1/2 hours. And yet they're going to get
f up four hours early?
SHAFFER No, no, no. I lead you astray advertently
by talking about two different time lines in the same
paragraph. Okay. Just back to the fold then. Well - -

END OF TAPE
SL III PC-87E/I
TIME: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

SPEAKER - Okay. It's back to the (garble)


SHAFFER Well, You guys have got me pulling numbers
out of my memory and I haven't thought about the two impulse
time line.
QUERY We'll get you later.
SHAFFER It's yeah, I it's probably more like - I'ii
betcha it's like 8 hours in the prelaunch time line, between wakeup
and undocking, and then 5 hours between undocking and splash.
Okay. Now, it'll be like 10-1/2 hours between wakeup and
undocking, and 2-1/2 hours or so between undoeking and
splash. The Delta time between wakeup and splash is held
the same, because we want to do the sequence over the same
ground stations that we trained to.
QUERY Taht's from undocking on?
SHAFFER Yeah.
SHAFFER That's 2 hours and 30 minutes from
undocking to splash. I'ii tell you what, guys, you can
go get the old original Flight Plan that we launched with
and there are - I'm sure there's a new Flight Plan
around with the current time line. And both of them will start
at wakeup and they'll both start at splash. And the wakeup
and the splash ought to be at the same time. Then you can
just see what goes on in the interval there.
QUERY A day or two ago, just in passing, you
mentioned that this crew is doing a lot of things for - that
the SL IV crew would normally be doing, so that the SL IV
crew would have more time to observe Kohoutek. Can you tell
just kind of off the top of your head, what some of these things
are, and what more they'll be doing in the last, what is it,
12 days, 13 days they've got left?
SHAFFER Tomorrow - well, one of the things they're
doing is some of the TO20 runs that were scheduled for SL IV.
And tomorrow we're doing one of those. Doing M509 runs, and
we've done one, and I believed there's another one scheduled,
but I'm not sure, or maybe we've done two of them already,
I don't remember. There was a corollary experiment, a
materials working experiment that was called H518, which is
melt them and let them reform and look at the structural
change that was scheduled for SL IV. We're in the process
of doing that. And we're about a third of the way through
that set of things. It typically takes a day to process
a sample, to heat it up and let it cool and cure and that's
going on. And we're doing some testing, like the stability
control test that we ran 3 or 4 days ago, just to see how
well the vehicle will hold an attitude for the Kohoutek-
how did you prounounee that - Kohoutek viewing.
Okay. Those are things that just pop in my mind immediately.
Now, because of the Kohoutek viewing, that will leave some-
what less time for such things as ATM and EREP, we're doing
some ATM and EREP now with some of the SL IV consummables.
_. However, some of those will be replaced, l'm talking about
SL III PC-87E/2
TIME: 16:32 CDT
9/12/73

tape and film and that kind of thing. And some of those
will be replaced - be carried up on SE IV, but I don't
think as much will be replaced as we're using.
QUERY Are they going to try to take a look
at Kohoutek, this crew? I just -
SHAFFER No.
PAO Any further questions? Thank you.

END OF TAPE

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