Skylab Rescue
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| Skylab Rescue Command Module Diagram | |
|---|---|
| Image:Skylab rescue.jpg | |
| Mission statistics | |
| Mission name: | AS-208 / AS-209 Skylab Rescue Mission |
| Number of crew: | 2 launched, 5 landing |
| Launch: | On standby August '73 through February '74 |
| Crew picture | |
| Image:Skylab rescue crew.jpg Skylab rescue crew portrait (L-R: Vance Brand and Don Lind) | |
| Skylab Rescue crew | |
The Skylab Rescue mission was a backup contingency for a rescue flight to the Skylab space station. The Saturn IB rocket, AS-208 was assembled in the Vertical Assembly Building at Launch Complex 39 for possible use. It used a modified Command Module that was to be launched with a crew of 2. The standard Skylab Command Module accommodates a crew of three with storage lockers on the aft bulkhead for resupply of experiment film and other equipment as well as the return of exposed film, data tapes and experiment samples. To convert the standard CM to a rescue vehicle, the storage lockers are removed and replaced with two crew couches in order to seat five crewmen. Each Skylab Rescue vehicle was used for the next flight.
After Skylab 3 was launched, it developed a problem with two of the Command/Service Modules Reaction Control System thruster quads. They were leaking fuel, reducing the available quads to just two, the minimum for continuation of the mission. NASA monitored the situation. If there had been a need for a rescue mission, NASA announced on August 4, 1973, the mission would be flown by Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 backup crewmen Vance Brand and Don Lind.
After the Skylab 4 launch, another rescue flight was assembled as a backup contingency. The Saturn IB rocket, AS-209 was assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Launch Complex 39 for possible use. It also used a modified Command Module that was to be launched with a crew of 2. This launch vehicle and command module were later used as a backup to the ASTP mission. The AS-209 Saturn IB launch vehicle and command module were never launched, and are now displayed at Kennedy Space Center visitor complex. As for the Skylab Rescue astronauts, Brand later flew on Apollo-Soyuz as command module pilot, and later as a Space Shuttle commander, while Lind would wait nearly another 11 years before he flew as a mission specialist on the STS-51-B mission in 1985.