Dec 19 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had decided not to reboost or deorbit the Skylab space station in orbit around the earth because success was unlikely. Uncertainties that had developed in Skylab systems, Skylab lifetime, Space Shuttle schedule, and teleoperator-retrieval system (TRS) delivery had made further planning for a rescue mission impractical. Factors leading to the decision included deterioration of systems aboard Skylab (recurring control-moment gyro anomalies, marginal power conditions, and minimal attitude-control impulse gas); high sunspot activity that was accelerating decay of Skylab's orbit; and reviews showing that a Skylab-rescue mission would be difficult to arrange before April 1980.
Skylab, currently orbiting at about 426km (265mi) altitude, was being maintained in a low-drag attitude and would be continually monitored while NASA assessed the possibilities of damage on reentry, now predicted to occur between mid-1979 and mid-1980. Most of the vehicle would burn up during reentry, but some fragments probably would reach earth's surface. Skylab's flight path was 75% over the ocean; the probability of injury or damage from it was less than that from meteorites, according to estimates. (NASA Release 78-191)
At a press conference following the announcement, Bill Haines of the Chicago Sun Times asked: "Way back in the olden days I remember that there was a lot of talk about space rescue, and one of the philosophies seemed to be that if we got into trouble or the Russians got into trouble, the other side would come to the rescue. Have you made any approaches at all to the Russians to see if they could do anything about this? If not, why not? And do you intend to?" John Yardley, associate administrator for Space Transportation Systems, answered: "This is a little different from the space rescues that we had talked about. As you know, part of the ASTP program was to design docking equipment that could be prototypes of that. And we still have a long-range plan with the Russians, albeit rather fuzzy, to some day have this capability.
"With respect to Skylab: After our ASTP, working with the Russians, of course, we had a fairly good working knowledge of the capabilities, at least that we knew of that were done in that program. And at least a year ago we got our own heads together and talked about whether or not they could do anything that we couldn't do. We concluded that there are many problems that we won't go into that it probably is not feasible, so we did not ask them. However, they are being informed of what we re doing here and if they make any proposals that we haven't thought of that could be useful, we will certainly entertain them." (NASA press conf Dec 19/78)
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