Oct 2 1973
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(New page: NASA held three Skylab press briefings at Johnson Space Center. At a postflight crew press briefing, Skylab 3 Astronaut Alan L. Bean -who had splashed down Sept. 25, after ...)
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NASA held three Skylab press briefings at Johnson Space Center. At a postflight crew press briefing, Skylab 3 Astronaut Alan L. Bean -who had splashed down Sept. 25, after a 59-day mission working in the Skylab 1 Orbital Workshop (launched May 14) with crew members Dr. Owen K. Garriott and Jack R. Lousma-said that the crew's health had been "good the whole time." Sufficient exercise, meals on time, and plenty of sleep had accounted for their happiness and well-being. Having a scientist-astronaut aboard had created a "greater variety of interchange around the dinner table," making "a better mission for everybody. ' The mission would have been "50% less productive if Owen had not been there. He added a great amount to it . because his point of view is, just different." Garriott said that a longer mission would necessitate "a somewhat less strenuous program," but he could have spent eight hours a day at the wardroom window with a camera in each hand and a good supply of film "and never have any tendency to become bored." Lousma said he still felt "a little less energetic" than before the mission, but within two weeks "I'll be back to the same condition."
Dr. Willard R. Hawkins, JSC Deputy Director of Life Sciences for Medical Operations, said that the crew was "in very good shape" but still had dizziness with specific head movements. Strength of the flexor and extensor muscles had decreased 20%. The astronauts' weights were steadily climbing toward their preflight weights. Early blood tests had shown the red cell mass was down an average of 12% for all three crew members. The blood plasma was also down 15% to 20%. In an overview of Skylab 4, the third and final manned Skylab mis-sion, Skylab Program Office Manager Kenneth S. Kleinknecht said that the spacecraft (Command and Service Module 118) and crew members Gerald P. Carr, Dr. Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue were being readied for Nov. 11 launch. Final decision on the launch date would be made after further evaluation of the mission. In preparation, 140 kg (300 lbs) of operational equipment had been deleted from stowage. It had been replaced with another 150 kg (300 lbs) of opera-tional equipment, 60 kg (130 lbs) for Skylab experiments, and 70 kg (150 lbs) of special equipment for Comet Kohoutek observations. After Oct. 8-10 flight readiness tests, only servicing, stowage, pyrotechnic installations, countdown demonstrations, and launch would remain. CSM-119, the rescue vehicle, was being prepared and would be avail-able for a Jan. 6 launch if needed. Alfred A. Bishop, Manager of the JSC Missions Office, said that, after the first two weeks of acclimation, the Skylab 4 crew would perform 28 man-hours of experiments each day, an increase from the 19 to 221/2 man-hours on Skylab 3. The increase would provide an additional 200 experiment man-hours. The crew would observe Comet Kohoutek, per-form 12 experiments using the Apollo Telescope Mount, observe Mercury crossing the sun Nov. 10, observe a solar eclipse, and perform 10 to 14 new earth resources experiment package passes. (Transcripts)
The U.S.S.R.'s Luna 19 automatic station (launched Sept. 28, 1971, toward lunar orbit) had discovered cosmic plasma on the near side of the moon, Tass reported. Mikhail Kolesov of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences had said the maximum concentration of matter was at 10 km (6 mi) from the lunar surface. Origin of the plasma was unknown but the plasma was believed to be greatly affected by solar wind. (FBIS-Sov, 10/3/73, U1)
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