Part of it landed in my mailbox — I got a poster around here (somewhere) with a photo of Skylab in orbit, and attached is a plastic pouch containing a sliver of the fiberglas (?) tank that managed to survive reentry and land in the the Outback I think it was. Most of the rest of it burned up.
After it had been basically derelict for a few years, NASA’s plan to resume using it via trips aboard the Space Shuttle fell apart because the Shuttle was years behind schedule. NATURALLY (and it’s just like is going on now) the previous orbital technology had been discontinued first.
That’s part of the gubmint manual, under the heading, “Not Learning From Our Mistakes” with some citations of the “Who Gives a Damn What We Do Around Here As Long as the Check Clears” appendix.
The communications technology was from the Gemini program, because both Skylab and Gemini were orbital vehicles. The Gemini comm network was purpose-built, whereas the Mercury comm network had been ad hoc (as quite realistically portrayed in “The Right Stuff”).
One person was put in charge of keeping the Skylab aloft until the the Shuttle was ready. He found out that the Skylab didn’t respond to transmissions, and it was reasonable to assume that the automated systems had failed to (or been unable to) maintain the onboard batteries.
His solution was to send the same commands over and over at the same rate that the onboard computer ran through its check to see if there was sufficient battery power to maintain the comm connection (this isn’t remotely anything they’d planned for). This way the cycle was keeping the charging process going by continuously sending the command to do that. The system would start charging, the computer would look at the batteries, see that they were too low, and shut down the circuitry that was doing the charging.
Yes, it is a gov’t operation, why do you ask?
The guy kept this up whenever the Skylab was both in comm range and in such a place that the solar panels were pumping out juice.
After *that* process, the computer would be turned on and would use the still-operational rockets on board to push the Skylab up into a higher orbit.
Then the orbital path would spend a few days or so out of comm range, the batteries would run down, and the whole process would start again.
Anyway, this heroic improvisation kept the Skylab aloft an extra few years, until the fuel nearly ran out and the Shuttle was still not ready. So his last task was to get the batteries charged again and do the controlled deorbit over the Indian Ocean where least chance of damage was.
Wow, very interesting...and talk about a kluge to keep it running. I still think they should have found a way to keep it up there. Somehow the thought of a disco-era derelict being boarded a hundred years from now just seems incredibly eery and cool.
When you say he did a controlled deorbit, how controlled was it? Did they fire retrorockets to bring it down or did they just go with its natural descent and fire side rockets (or whatever they’re called) to steer it?