Page 21 - Intro to Space Sciences Spacecraft Applications

8 Introduction to Space Sciences and Spacecraft Applications

Figure 1-4. Apollo 15 astronaut on the surface of the moon with the lunar
excursion module and lunar rover vehicles nearby. (Photograph courtesy of
NASA.)

Task Group of the National Academy of Sciences established by President
Richard M. Nixon in 1969. The new focus would be on development of a
reusable space transportation system.
Initial plans also called for two separate space stations to be visited by
multiple crews using Apollo-derived equipment. Instead, a single station,
Skylab, was approved. When it was launched atop the last Saturn V boost-
er in May 1973, a meteoroid shield and one of the two main solar panels
were lost during ascent. The first crew to arrive found living conditions
unbearably hot and a station lacking power. Through ingenuity and
unplanned EVAs, the crew was able to erect a sunshield and straighten out
the power problem to make the station usable. The longest mission to Sky-
lab was by the third and final crew in 1974 and lasted 84 days.
Skylab was used for a wide variety of investigations, including pio-
neering earth and atmosphere remote sensing, materials processing, bio-
medicine, and some of the most revealing solar studies to date. Aban-