European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 30, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                He picked four Johnson Center men who did Thev were experts in four major disciplines final Oil  u mentation and electric allele a Matching fireman Loam was selected at Marshall space flight Huntsville Ala which took part in the original skylab that team a headed by 52yearold Herman Thomason says we had to find out if skylab would even respond to our it had been Dor Man in space for four with no attempt to Contact the team assembled at the station in Bermuda join ing were two computer programmers from the Goddard space flight on March the team made its first attempt to Contact the and we got the Surprise of our life says on the very first pass everybody jumped Back when data immediately came Back from the Craft tears came to my says Bill a member of the Marshall skylab radioed information for two minutes came Back with another 90second and then the data it was like handing Candy to a kid and then snatching it Peters the team turned its computers Loose on the scanty bits of information in hand and determined that a faulty Volt age converter aboard skylab caused the data it also Learned that skylab was standing on its Tail in relation to the was wobbling aimlessly and rolling once around its Long Axis every six minutes As it spun through space at skylab has two other and a command was Lenv n streaming Down from the s a n of Mish i y i computer might be Lxi cold and Hal to Hawk m Lac left t our years ago would leave a Bunch of garbage in irlllrf1 indkal9d the computer temperature was around minus 10 degrees centigrade u decrees Fahryn j says a scorch of cords showed that j the computer Down to minus 20 de so Lahr Cheiu and had done some testing below Consul cd and they agreed it should did k by then the team had been in Bermuda a week and concluded skylab was alive and Well and Hal something might be done to extend its life by Chang ing its position in the team returned to Houston to prepare for a series of Maneu vers in Peters supervised the setting up of a jury rigged control room just Down the Hall from the big control Center that once tracked american astronauts to the until last the room was used to Monitor instruments left on the Moon by the that activity ended because of a shortage of and the room lockup of space shuttle rests near launching facilities at Kennedy space orbiting skylab space Scooter device brought by below docks july was used for we were operating on a Low Peters recalls we scrounged communications and other equipment where we would around the Center and put instead of the expensive spacecraft models available to Apollo someone assembled a Model from two tin cardboard and lie Cream bar tie makeshift Center could not communicate directly but communications were established so Peters and his men could relay commands through one if three Nasa stations Calif and near Belore any real work could i dime with the most of the 18 batteries in the Forward Section had to be this proved to be one if the most difficult prob unlike the air lock module batteries charged Peters these batteries Are very smart at least their control circuitry it says if the Battery is under voltage 2v volts or then it turns itself that a safely device to prevent it hurting the rest of the system since every one of them was at Zero every time wed Send a command to turn a Battery it would say in under 27 volts but each time we did that it would stay on for 10 enough time for a tiny amount of current to get into the Battery from the solar what we did was Send command after command to each Battery thousands and thousands and thou Sands of commands until 14 of the 18 batteries finally got above 27 h took a month and a lot of another week was required to loud com Mand numbers into the main covering every possible contingency that might develop when the attempt was made to Man Euver the big space on june the team was ready for final it began by turning on Heaters to warm two gyros copes which would be essential in controlling the that took two and on thursday the gyros were spun up exactly As the most critical Man Euver look place when the station was shifted so that its solar panels pointed directly at the Sun to draw continuous Power for the Batter that tilted skylab from its standup position in relation to the Karth to an alignment where it was almost parallel to the Karth it also removed the wobbling we expected to take several hours before our sensors locked on the Peters says hut they locked on the very first and we were one Happy Kach raised a make believe Glass in a mock Cham pagne the euphoria was a few hours after relaying a routine command involving a computer the controllers detected the station had started to Roll before they could figure How to stabilise the Craft passed out of radio Range and was not contacted again for 90 minutes experts determined that a switch aboard the ship had misinterpreted the command and instead had shut Oil one of the two Gyroscope that established the Roll to try to the computer directed skylab steering rockets to ire several when the station came within Range controllers ordered the Gyroscope motor Back on Kavc Ryling was Fine again within six minutes it really gave us a says pie major loss was pounds of rocket dropping the Sta Lions Supply to about pounds Nasa wants a mini mum of pounds in the that left Only the final adjustment tipping the last few degrees so it would be parallel to Karlh along its flight that command was transmitted sunday Treyve Given skylab a new lease on commented Nasa official churns it was a Miracle on a it sure says Peters we had a minimum of people a minimum display system and a minimum com Mand system but a maximum of Talent from the John Marshall and Goddard the next astronaut Jack a member of the skylab 2 Crew which lived aboard the station for 5y dropped by the control Center to Check on Progress he asked in the station would be inhabited Chubb said that there was enough oxygen and nitrogen aboard for perhaps a suday Mission i Pousma also noted there probably was still plenty o asparagus left b Crews it one of our least he the stars and strips Page 11