Books - Skylab

Product Description:
(20081202)



Customer Review: More Than a 'Standard' Historical review of Skylab:
As other reviewers have noted, this is an excellent addition to the Outward Odyssey series. The only pity is that it comes 'hot on the heels' of David Shayler's "Around the World in 84 Days" bio of Skylab 4's Jerry Carr, dealing with similar subject matter. I found myself glossing over much of the material on Skylab 4, but only because I had just read Shayler's book.

Homesteading Space contains a wealth of never-before published information on the Skylab program; three of the most interesting sections deal with (first)the 10-day period following launch of the Orbital Workshop to save the station and the program from complete loss after the launch damage; (second) the SMEAT long duration simulation, with a fascinating insight into the "unsung" contributions of people like Bill Thornton. The other is the section dealing with the planning of the (ultimately unflown) rescue mission for Skylab 3 after the OMS quads ruptured on-orbit (with good insight from the rescue mission crewmembers Brand and Lind).

The book does a generally excellent job of capturing the challenge and the unknowns of long duration spaceflight in the 1970s, before the 'lessons learned' from Shuttle/MIR and ISS and also prior to continuous ground communications through relay satellites. As an adjunct, there are a number of laments from the crewmembers that not enough lessons had been learned for, or incorporated into, ISS.

One theme running loosely (and inevitably) through the book is the challenge of habitability issues aboard Skylab. This comes together at the end of the book in a useful 'postscript' section that summarises and highlights the major lessons learned from the entire program. This also includes a very readable summary of the achievements of the major scientific programs, including the medical and solar astronomy programs.

The book is not overly technical, and has been pitched at readers who are familiar with the US space program, without being overly technically minded. Although told primarily from the perspective of the 8 surviving crewmembers, it is pleasing to note that plenty of other 'voices' and characters appear throughout the book.

One minor disappointment (and it is a minor one): no schematics of the OWS and not a lot of photos. To give one example, a number of references are made throughout the book to the airlock hatch being a left-over Gemini hatch. This is the first I have ever heard of this (having studied Skylab on and off for years), and I would loved to have seen a photo of how this was integrated into the vehicle.

An added bonus is the verbatim reproduction of Alan Bean's on-orbit diary written during Skylab 3, the existence of which had not been widely known before this book was written.

At 400+ pages, this well-written book does justice to a fascinating, if often overlooked, program in the US space program. This book is a "must-have" for anyone seriously interested in the US space program, and makes a nice companion to older books like Cooper's "House in Space" and the official NASA publications from the 70s "Skylab, A Guidebook" (NASA EP-107), "Skylab: Explores the Earth" (NASA SP-380) and "Skylab, Our First Space Station" (NASA SP-400), which are mostly technical texts.

Well done to all.


Customer Review: Homesteading Space:
Homesteading Space, the story of Skylab, is another outstanding addition to the very popular Outward Odyssey series! This installment, like its predecessors, includes numerous insightful and humorous personal stories, many previously untold, of the brave men who flew these pioneering missions. I often had the feeling while reading the book that I was at a cocktail party shooting the breeze with these brave heroes as well as many of the support personnel responsible for getting the missions off the ground. Most enjoyable is the focus on the wonderful leadership skills of Commander Alan Bean during the second manned Skylab mission. Astronaut Bean seemed to walk in the shadow of Commander Pete Conrad on his earlier Apollo 12 mission to the moon where Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot, but I always felt that if called upon that Bean could have taken command and done an equally impressive job. On Bean's Skylab mission he proved his command and leadership skills, and Homesteading Space helps the reader understand Bean's leadership style and passion. But all nine of the Skylab astronauts are showcased in this wonderful story of America's first space station, giving the reader a close-up look at what it took to test the unknowns of long duration space flight. The book also highlights how the pilot and scientist astronauts worked together as a team to ensure all scientific experiments were carried out as planned. Homesteading Space tells the human story of a pioneering space mission that proved humans could live and work for long durations in outer space, and paved the way for the International Space Station! It's more than a story about pioneering exploration; it conveys to the reader what it was like to live for months in outer space!

Customer Review: A Pivotal Time for Space Exploration:
The University of Nebraska Press has undertaken a huge series that I have been paying close attention to over the past year - the Outward Odyssey Series, which examines the human endeavors into outer space. The latest installment, Homesteading Space turns to a relatively unknown element, but crucial element of our trips to orbit, Skylab. Like the prior books, Into that Silent Sea, In the Shadow of the Moon and To A Distant Day, we are not only treated to a wealth of information about the technical aspects of the program, but the implications and human element of it.

Skylab was launched in 1973 after a number of years in development alongside the Apollo Program. While Mercury, Gemini and Apollo all had a singular purpose (to see if people could reach space and survive, to see if people could exist in space and if people could reach the moon, land and return), Skylab diverged from this main mission of lunar exploration and was essentially the start of the modern space program with vast implications: it was designed to see whether people could life in outer space. This mission has influenced our advances into orbit since - with the construction of the space shuttle, Mir and the International Space Station, and future missions to the Moon and to Mars, each owes (or will owe) much to the Skylab mission.

Skylab was interesting. As noted in the opening of the book, it was built from pre-existing parts, scraped from other programs and components. The station itself was part of the Saturn Rocket, an empty fuel tank, that was refitted and placed into orbit. From there, three crews were sent up and conducted a huge number of experiments that helped to see the effects of zero gravity on the human body during extended amounts of time (each of these crews set records for their time in space). Additionally, they were the first to conduct dedicated experiments and observations on the sun and while in the presence of zero gravity. The first solar flares were witnessed via the Apollo Telescope Mount, and a wealth of information about the Earth's atmosphere as well.

Homesteading Space is not just about the scientific knowledge that was obtained in orbit - this is the story of the astronauts who conducted the experiments, who lived in space for weeks or months at a time, and how they coped. Skylab provided an enormous opportunity for individual cooperation and perseverance, for there were numerous problems that could have easily prevented the program from happening at all. But, each time, the astronauts and their ground support were able to overcome each problem and continue onwards.

The station was almost doomed from the start - upon its launch, solar coverings and shielding was stripped from the station, leaving it unlivable until a solution (essentially an umbrella) was improvised to protect the living quarters. The solar panels were crippled and power was limited. The first space walks were essentially rescue missions to save the station. On the second mission, two thrusters from the command module broke, leaving NASA to quickly plan a rescue mission from the ground as well as a solution for reentry with the remaining thrusters (no rescue was launched, and the crew returned safely).

The astronauts themselves were also the center of attention, and from this reading, it seems like they had quite a bit of fun in orbit. A number of jokes were played with the zero gravity, from contests and acrobatics, to leaving space suits stuffed and floating around the station for the next crew to find. This book helps to exemplify the role to which the astronauts have played in space, and their importance to the program, and does so wonderfully.

The book is not without its flaws, however. At points, it is repetitive, as I would come across the same story of astronauts losing items and then finding them in an air vent numerous times. A number of other details throughout are replicated, as are long passages from diaries and communications logs, which were likewise reprinted in the back of the book as an appendix. While these passages do provide some insight into the astronauts' lives, it broke up the flow of the reading. Where I noted that the last book, To A Distant Day, was very short, this one seems to overcompensate and could have been stripped down a little more than it was. However, this is really the only major flaw here, and as a result, there is a rich amount of information about the Skylab program, almost literally minute by minute at points.

Homesteading Space highlights a crucial crossroads for the space program, the point between the drive to reach the moon, and the beginning of a new era. Skylab was caught in between Apollo and the Space Shuttle, and serves as a link to the two, drawing from knowledge that was obtained during the lunar missions, and influencing the future of spaceflight and habitation. The next book is due out next year, about Satellites, but I'm more excited for the following installment, Footsteps in the Dust, about the remaining lunar missions. This series is superior, detailed, exciting and enlightening, and provides a huge ray of hope for what's to come next for us.

(Originally printed at my blog)

Customer Review: A Solid History of a Little-known but Significant Space Project:
"Homesteading Space" tells a significant part of the story of the Skylab orbital workshop, the first American space station launched in 1973 and occupied through the middle part of 1974 by three crews of astronauts. Owen Garriott, Joseph P. Kerwin, and Alan L. Bean were all astronauts that flew aboard Skylab and with the help of journalist David Hitt they do a credible job of telling their story.

A 100-ton orbital workshop was launched into orbit with the last use of the giant Saturn V launch vehicle in June 1973. Almost immediately, technical problems developed due to vibrations during lift off and the first crew to fly, astronauts Pete Conrad, Paul J. Weitz, and "Homesteading Space" co-author Joseph P. Kerwin, had to resolve them and make Skylab operational. That first group of astronauts returned to Earth on June 22, 1973, and two other Skylab crews followed, one each with co-authors Garriott and Bean.

All three crews occupied the Skylab workshop for a total of 171 days and 13 hours. It was the site of nearly 300 scientific and technical experiments. In Skylab, both the total hours in space and the total hours spent in performance of EVA under microgravity conditions exceeded the combined totals of all of the world's previous space flights up to that time.

Skylab was the first real test of long-duration spaceflight undertaken by the United States. "Homesteading Space" is a useful personal recollection of three astronauts who flew on Skylab. It is a welcome account of a lesser known program.

Product Description:
Skylab is not just a story of space hardware and space science, but also of space explorers and pioneers. Using official NASA documentation and interviews with the astronauts and key personnel, the inside story of Skylab is presented as the story unfolds. An evaluation of the lessons learnt from the programme and how these were, or were not, incorporated into the Space Shuttle and Space Station programme is also offered to present the value of Skylab in the context of the current programme, 25 years after the last crew came home.



Customer Review: All there is...and thankfully it's a good one:
There aren't many books that focus on the Skylab project. My own memories of Skylab are vague and in the shadow of Apollo, the Viking landers and the Voyager probes how could public perception of Skylab be anything but "underwhelmed"? What a shame. Many thanks and kudos to David Shayler for taking the time to craft such a well written account of an oft overlooked and imminenetly vital contribution to manned space exploration. The text is rife with detail and description that is rarely dull. With little else written about Skylab it is a relief to be able to say that this book is the best and will be difficult to top by anyone aspiring to tackle the subject. For any space buff this is a highly recommended addition to your collection.

Customer Review: A Good Narrative History of the Skylab Program:
David Shayler has been a prolific writer of space history for the last several years, and this narrative history of Skylab is a notable addition to his portfolio and the historical literature on space stations. From the time of Konstantin Tsiolkovskiy through Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and Wernher von Braun all the spaceflight visionaries believed that a space station was a necessary prerequisite to further human exploration of space. They recognized that once humans had achieved Earth-orbit about 250 miles up, the presumed location of any space station, the vast majority of the atmosphere and the gravity well had been conquered and that humans were now about halfway to anywhere else they might want to go. They could use it as a base camp at the bottom of the mountain or the fort in the wilderness, or use any other similar metaphor, to jump off on explorations of the Solar System. It became the centerpiece of an integrated strategy for space exploration, and found its most sophisticated depiction as a way station in the masterful 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The first effort in the United States to build a space station was Skylab, launched in 1973 and occupied through 1974, a far cry from the rotating wheel of "2001: A Space Odyssey" but nonetheless a genuine success story. It represented a preliminary space station and was a relatively small orbital space platform that would allow astronauts for the first time to remain in space for months at a time. It would be, NASA officials hoped, be the precursor of a real space station. This is the story that Shayler tells in this fine narrative history.

It used a reconfigured and habitable third stage of the Saturn V rocket as the basic component of the orbital workshop. The 100-ton Skylab 1 workshop was launched into orbit on May 14, 1973, the last use of the giant Saturn V launch vehicle. Shayler is at his best when discussing the dramatic rescue effort that followed, for technical problems developed due to vibrations during lift-off When the meteoroid shield--designed also to shade Skylab's workshop from the Sun's rays--ripped off, taking with it one of the spacecraft's two solar panels, and another piece wrapped around the other panel to keep it from properly deploying. This caused a serious temperature rise inside Skylab that the astronauts had to correct.

In an intensive ten-day period, NASA developed procedures and trained the crew to make the workshop habitable. On May 25, 1973, astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr., Paul J. Weitz, and Joseph P. Kerwin, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in an Apollo capsule atop a Saturn IB and rendezvoused with the orbital workshop. This crew carried a parasol, tools, and replacement supplies to repair the orbital workshop. After substantial repairs requiring extravehicular activity (EVA), including deployment of a parasol sunshade that cooled the inside temperatures to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, by June 4 the workshop was habitable. During a June 7 EVA the crew also freed the jammed solar array and increased power to the workshop.

In orbit the crew conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, medical studies, and five student experiments. This first crew made 404 orbits and carried out experiments for 392 hours, in the process making three EVAs totaling six hours and 20 minutes. The first group of astronauts returned to Earth on June 22, 1973, and two other Skylab missions followed. The Skylab 3 crew was launched on July 28, 1973, and its mission lasted 59 days. Skylab 4, the last mission on the workshop was launched on November 16, 1973, and remained in orbit for 84 days. At the conclusion of Skylab 4 the orbital workshop was powered down with the intention that it might be visited again.

Following the final occupied phase of the Skylab mission, ground controllers performed some engineering tests of certain Skylab systems, positioned Skylab into a stable attitude, and shut down its systems. It was expected that Skylab would remain in orbit eight to ten years, by which time NASA might be able to reactivate it. In the fall of 1977, however, space agency officials determined that Skylab had entered a rapidly decaying orbit--resulting from greater than predicted solar activity--and that it would reenter the Earth's atmosphere within two years. They steered the orbital workshop as best they could so that debris from reentry would fall over oceans and unpopulated areas of the planet. On July 11, 1979, Skylab finally impacted the Earth's surface. The debris dispersion area stretched from the Southeastern Indian Ocean across a sparsely populated section of Western Australia. NASA and the U.S. space program took criticism for this development, ranging from the sale of hardhats as "Skylab Survival Kits" to serious questions about the propriety of space flight altogether if people were likely to be killed by falling objects. In reality, while NASA took sufficient precautions so that no one was injured, its leaders had learned that the agency could never again allow a situation in which large chunks of orbital debris had a chance of reaching the Earth's surface. It was an inauspicious ending to the first American space station, not one that its originators had envisioned, but it had opened some doors of understanding and had whetted the appetite for a full-fledged space station.

David Shayler tells this story well, but without footnotes. If you wish to read the same story, also well told, but with references to official documents see the official NASA history by W. David Compton and Charles D. Benson, "Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab" (Washington, DC: NASA Special Publication-4208, 1983).

Customer Review: America's first space station is recalled:
Everything you wanted to know about Skylab is in this book, and contrary to many opinions NASA didn't just loft three, three-man crews, to this space station to play around with candy and fruit juice.
Probably the most interesting details come early in the book which show how Dr. Wernher von Braun and Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala., designed and built Skylab. The groundwork for today's International Space Station was laid in the mid-1960s by the men and women of the Skylab program.
A fair amount of time is spent discussing how Skylab was saved from an untimely demise when it was damaged during launch. It took two crews to get it set up right, but what could have been a failure was turned around to a quick thinking success because of NASA's dedication to this mission. Lessons that can be learned in today's space program if we are going to return to the moon and go on to Mars.
Like all the Springer-Praxis space books this one can be an interesting history and a valuable learning tool. It works either way for the casual or the more intensely interested.

Product Description:
On February 1st 2003, one of the worst and most public disasters ever witnessed in the human space programme unfolded with horrifying suddenness in the skies above north central Texas. The Space Shuttle Columbia – the world’s first truly reusable manned spacecraft – was lost during her return to Earth, along with a crew of seven. It was an event that, after the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger during a launch 17 years before, the world had hoped it would never see again. This book details each of Columbia’s 28 missions in turn, as told by scientists and researchers who developed and supported her many payloads, by the engineers who worked on her and by the astronauts who flew her. In doing so, it is intended to provide a fitting tribute to this most remarkable flying machine and those who perished on her last mission.



Customer Review: Detailed but not neccessarily riveting:
If you want a definitive summary of the missions, crew and experiments undertaken by Columbia, this is a good reference to have. The trouble is that, after describing the excitement of the first flight, and the other milestones, it becomes a long list of one mission after the other. I doubt that the book could have ended up any other way, but it's not necessarily interesting reading after a while. What's also surprising to this reviewer is that the choice of photographs seems restricted. Many crews get their standard group shot floating in one of the shuttle's equipment bays or in Spacelab, but once again they are essentially the same picture. It may will be that the options available to the photographers in the confines of the spacecraft are restricted.
What do work well are the opening chapters, particularly the context of John Young's enthusiasm for the announcement of the shuttle programme, and the closing chapters on Columbia's final mission and the subsequent investigation. In these, there are poignant descriptions that I've not read elsewhere, that bring home the enormity of what happened. To imagine being at KSC, awaiting its return, and slowly to realize that the sonic boom is missing, that the speck on the horizon in missing, and that the clock has passed the touch-down time, is ably supported by the narrative.
To this reviewer, the book also brings home the sheer difficulty and dangers of regularly launching this spacecraft - something that we forget at our peril - and the successes that NASA and the United States have had in this 25-year programme. Having all this information, presumably availailable in each missions report, in one volume is useful.

Customer Review: a great read:
THIS IS A RELLY GOOD STORY. EVERY TIME I READ IT, I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN TIL ITS FINISHED. EVEN THOUGH PARTS OF IT TAKE PLACE IN SPACE, THE CHARACTERS ARE SO REAL IT DOESN'T REALLY FEEL LIKE SCIENCE FICTION. JESSE IS YOUNG AND ALONE AND SHE JUST WANTS TO LIVE HER LIFE.

Customer Review: A Game of Survivor . . . in Space!:
When the earth starts heating up enough that all of humankind is at risk, fifteen-year-old Jesse uses her stubborn tenacity to get herself signed on as one of the passengers aboard an experimental space ship that is meant to take them to another planet where they can start over. But on this space-faring Noah's Ark Jesse quickly discovers that living under the tyrannical and idealistic thumb of their stern ship commander is the last thing she wants. As the crew starts to fall apart, this fiery spirit may be the only one who can find a way to unite everyone once more.

I will freely admit that Anabel and Edgar Johnson have a wonderful talent for creating believable and compelling characters. Jesse's first person diary-format story-telling pulls reader's right in to the story and the conflicts that are taking place. This would be a fantastic young adult science fiction story-it's got a great plot arc, the story keeps us intrigued and reading in order to find out what happens to our strong-willed and likeable protagonist, and there is a good, satisfying ending complete with romance. So what's wrong with the story? I'm afraid I just couldn't buy the set-up for this story at all. In the book, the earth is dying due to the greenhouse effect. Commander Hammond decides to pilot a spacecraft to another planet in the solar system to save humanity. This makes little sense for a number of reasons 1) Earth is still more hospitable than any of the other planets-so why not use the technology there? 2) Why aren't there more people trying to escape earth? I doubt that the governments wouldn't be scrambling for solutions and escapes. 3) The ending, while dramatic, doesn't seem believable. It's convenient for the sake of the story, but hard to accept as a reality.

I could wish the authors had come up with another explanation for why this disparate crew comes together in space, because the story is worth reading. The heroine is intelligent and capable-without being perfect. Within the limited confines of the ship, the game of politics and power-and the fire of the human spirit-play out with some startlingly good observations about human nature. I would have liked to give this book five stars, but I'm going to settle for four. The contrivance to get our characters aboard this spaceship damaged the integrity of this story as a whole. Still, since this book is less about the science and more about the social interaction, it is worth reading, especially by a younger adult audience hungry for stories with strong female protagonists. Those who like this book may also enjoy CALLING B FOR BUTTERFLY by Louis Lawrence and INVITATION TO THE GAME by Monica Hughes.

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

Customer Review: Great!:
I took the book out of the library about 10 times when I was a young teenager. I loved it so much.

Customer Review: It really does stay with you:
I also read this book a long time ago but find myself thinking of it quite a bit. Its resonance has mostly to do with the the well-drawn, believable characters and the thought-provoking plot of how a southern teenager tries to escape the world's impending ecological apocalypse. Alothugh a little bit overblown at times, it still was an incredibly gripping read. Too bad I can't find this book anywhere since I think its themes will become more pertinent in the coming years.

Customer Review: Good one!:
I read this book many years ago at the library but I've never forgotten it. One of the best books I've ever read.

Product Description:
Follows the progress of the Skylab project from the preliminary planning and construction of the laboratory through the experiments, launches, and experiences of the nine astronauts living and working in earth orbit.

Customer Review: An Alien Music:
I must have borrowed this book from the library a dozen times. This is a great coming-of-age story told with unusual skill.

Jesse Wilder was raised in Missouri. Her parents died when she was young, and her brother left to work for NASA, leaving her with the neighbors. She writes to him often, but he rarely replies. While she's resourceful and creative, it seems like whatever she does is a disaster.

Global warming and acid rain are wreaking havoc on the climate. The trees died and the temp is in the 120's, day after day. But no one ever thought it was the end of the world.

But when her foster mother dies of heat stroke, and Jesse is about to be pawned off on other neighbors, she decides she's had enough. Her resourcefulness helps her as she hitches rides cross country to find her brother. On her way, she realizes that, just maybe, it is the end of the world...

Her brother is on board the Skylab 7. Jesse cons her way on board, but finds out that he never planned to send for her after all. He would have let her die on Earth....

Meanwhile, she has bigger problems, because the Skylab 7 and all on board are on their way to colonize Mars...

Product Description:
COVER STORIES: SCENIC GUILIN LINKS CHINA'S PAST AND PRESENT; TWO ENGLANDS; ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE; MIRACLES OF FIBER OPTICS; LEARNING THE WAYS OF THE WALRUS; SKYLAB'S FIERY END.



Customer Review: Interesting and Educational!:
"Guilin - China's Beauty Spot" tells of an area famous for its abrupt limestone hills and the Ling Canal (214 B.C.) built to unify northern and southern China. Tourism has doubled annually since the area was reopened in 1973. When pollution from factories threatened tourism the government closed zinc, steel, and paper mills and moved a power plant.

During WWII caves in the limestone hills served as bomb shelters. The Flying tigers base at Guilin grew to be one of the finest U.S. bases in China, though was destroyed when they retreated in the face of oncoming Japanese. Living conditions at that time were poor - cholera, typhoid, malaria, and other diseases plagued the people.

In the 1940s thousands professed to be Christians; in 1951 the missionaries were ordered out and no Christians worship openly at this time.

The most capable pupils are set on a course that can lead to membership in the Communist Party - a status achieved by less than 4% of the population. Buying a bicycle may require as much as a two-year wait. Rice and cotton are rationed. Bomb shelters are built under the street - the threat of attack by the Soviet Union is taken seriously.

"Miracles of Fiber Optics" reports that a single fiber can transmit the content of 200 books in one second. They're also used to search for cancer, peer into radioactive reactor units, inspect jet engines, monitor external lights, help those with night blindness, and provide night vision to pilots and soldiers. Ten thousand conversations can be carried on one strand.

Most fibers are now made in lengths of ten kilometers. Splicing is accomplished by aligning ends cut with a diamond stylus, then fusing with an electric arc. Fibers are protected from damage by plastic coating and sheaths. No cross-talk, and not easily tapped or jammed.

Product Description:
Fairly scarce press kit containing illustrations, information, and short biographies of some of the key players and equipment.