Skylab 4's Christmas Tree

Made up from a lot of empty food cans and topped with a "comet" in honor of Comet Kohoutek, the first to be observed by a manned spacecraft.

That's the fastest, most high-tech, and most expensive tree in orbit, going by developmental costs of the Skylab program.

Skylab Coordinate System

I dug through several NASA PDF's trying to find a single consistent description of the station's axis system. The only consistent part was:

X AXIS: front to back, with +X always in the direction of the primary docking port.

Y AXIS: left and right.

Z AXIS: up and down.

Many times, the same manual would show +Y as the station's left, -Y to the right, only to have the polarities reversed in another diagram several chapters later. Same for +Z up/-Z down.


I'm just going to keep it simple and maintain this standard throughout the blog:

X AXIS: front to back, with +X always in the direction of the primary docking port.

Y AXIS: +Y to left,  -Y to right.

Z AXIS: +Z up--the direction the Telescope Mount points--and  -Z down.

Glossary

To be updated as needed and linked from the front page of the Blog.

Abbreviations & acronyms are on a separate page.

Airlock Module (AM)
--A tunnel section joining the Orbital Workshop and the Multiple Docking Adapter. There were hatches at each end to seal it off and an external hatch for spacewalks.

Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM)
--An octagonal box that contained several specialized solar telescopes. This was mounted on a truss that held it above and clear of the station's primary docking port.

Deployment Assembly (DA)
--The two-piece truss that joins the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) to Skylab's hull.

Multiple Docking Adapter (MDA)
--The station's "work space." It contains a pair of docking ports, controls and displays for the Telescope Mount and Earth Resources Experiments Package.

Orbiting Assembly (OA)
--The station itself, including all components and any docked spacecraft.

Orbital Workshop (OWS)
--The large cylindrical section of the station. This contained the living quarters, an experimental compartment, and a forward compartment.

Skylab via Skylab 3 Flyaround

(open in new tab for 3820 x 3900 res)

Shot as the SL3 spacecraft began its rendezvous and flyaround with the space station on July 28, 1973.

SL3 was the second manned mission up to Skylab.

Crew:
--Alan Bean (commander)
--Jack Lousma (pilot)
--Owen Garriott (science pilot)

Launched July 28, 1973
Returned September 25, 1973

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This is probably my favorite shot of the station. The crazy angle underlines that there's really no "up" in space. To keep things simple, though, I define "Station Up" as "whichever way the Telescope Mount is pointing--in this case, the lower-right of the photo. "Station Right" follows the solar array at the top of the photo.

From a modeler's perspective, this picture's a goldmine. It's one of a few showing the station from below, so you get a good view of the truss structure--the "Deployment Assembly" or "DA", the Earth-observation antennas mounted on the underside of the Docking Adapter, and the bottom of the Telescope Mount and solar arrays.


Source at Archive.org

Skylab 3,Skylab views during rendezvous and flyaround. View from underneath Skylab showing external Earth Resources Experiments Package (EREP) sensor packages and antennae. Original Film Magazine was labeled CX-10. Camera Data: 70mm Hasselblad; Lens 100mm; Film Type: S0-368 Medium Speed Ektachrome. Flight Date: July 28 - September 25,1973.

Filename sl3-114-1660.tif
Identifier sl3-114-1660
Nasaid sl3-114-1660
Rights Public Domain

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