Skylab 4 PAO Mission Commentary 31 of 32

SL-IV MC-2900/I
Time: 09:18 CDT, 83:14:18 GMT

216174
PAO This is Skylab Control at 14 hours

and 18 minutes Greenwich mean time. Carnarvon is about to
acquire the space station.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Carnarvon
for 5-1/2 minutes. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. About 30 seconds
to LOS. Next station contact in 9 minutes through Guam
at 14:34. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Carnarvon has
loss of signal. Guam is the next station in 7 minutes.
At 14 hours 26 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab
Control.
32 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab coming up on a pass
to Guam station, 4-1/2-minute acquisition there.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Guam
CC Skylab, this is Houston. i minute to LOS.
Next contact in 18 minutes through Goldstone at 14:56 with
a da=a/voice tape recorder dump at AUg. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. The space station
is out of range of the Guam antennas. Next aequisitlon is
the tracking station Goldstone in 16 minutes. At 14 hours
40 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab Control.
55 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab about to start a pass
through the Goldstone and Texas stations.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Goldstone,
Corpus Christi and Merritt Island fur 14-1/2 minutes. And
we're looking at a data/voice tape recorder dump here at
Goldstone.
PLT Roger, Bruce.
CC Skylah, this is Houston. i minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 10-1/2 minutes through the
Vanguard at sea at 15:21. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Merritt Island
has loss of signal. Next acquisition through the tracking
ship Vanguard in 9 minutes. At 15 hours ii minutes Greenwich
mean time, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2901/I
Time: 10:19 CDT 83:15:19 GMT
02/06/74

19 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab approaching acquisi-
tion through the Vanguard tracking ship.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through the
Vanguard for 8-1/2 minutes. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. 1 minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 19 minutes through Tananarive
at 15:21. Out. Or at 15:49. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. The Vanguard
has loss of signal. Next station is Tananarive in
17 minutes. The Spaceflight Meteorology Group of the National
Weather Service said, this morning, that satisfactory weather
conditions are expected for the landing and recovery of
Skylab IV on Friday morning. Landing zone located approxi-
mately 150 nautical miles southwest of San Diego is expected
to have partly cloudy skies. Northerly surface winds will
gradually increase to a maximum of about 25 knots today
and Thursday, but are expected to subside to the 18- to
22- knot range on landing day. Seas will range between 5
and 7 feet and the temperature will be near 60 degrees.
At 15 hours 32 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylah
Control.
47 minutes Greenwich mean time. Acquisition at Tananarive
in about 45 seconds for a 3-minute pass.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Tananarive
for 3 minutes. Out.
CC 1 minute to LOS. Next station contact
in 45 minutes through Goldstone at 16:36. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Tananarive has
loss of signal. Next acquisition through Goldstone in
43-1/2 minutes. At 15 hours 52 minutes Greenwich mean time,
this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2902/I
TIME: 11:35 CDT, 83:16:35 GMT
2/6/74
PAO This is Skylab Control 16 hours 35 minutes

Greenwich mean time. Skylab will be acquired by the Goldstone
station in about a minute. 5-minute pass at Goldstone. This
is the only stateside acquisition on this revolution.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Goldstone
CC Skylab, this is Houston; 1-1/2 minutes
to LOS. Next station contact in 18 minutes through the
PAO This is Skylah Control. Skylab out of
range of Goldstone now. Next acquisition the tracking ship
Vanguard in 5 minutes. At 16 hours 42 minutes Greenwich
PAO This is Skylab Control at 16 hours 56 minutes
Greenwich mean time. The Vanguard is about to acquire Skylah.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through the Vanguard
for ii minutes with a data/voice tape recorder dump.
CDR Roger, Bruce.
CC Roger; Roger.
CC And, Jerry, if you have a second, I wonder
if you could just give us some feel for how things are going
up there. We're not trying to tie you at any step in the
checklist since we haven't got any particular ehecknotes for
working through today. We'd just like a feel for how things
seem to be moving along.
CDR Well, I personally have not done much more
than the quad instant checklist this morning, and an LBNP
run this morning. That's about it for me. So I'm on
schedule, I'll check with the other guys.
CC Okay.
CDR Yeah, the other guys are on schedule too.
There's nothing - nothing happening. We're just kind of waiting
for the other shoe to fall.
CC Okay.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. For your information
we're going to be commanding PCG number 3 back on line and PCG
number 5 off for a half hour integrater catch up in preparation
for your postdeparture testing. Over.
PLT Roger, Bruce.
CC Skylab, this is Houston; 1 minute to LOS.
Next station contact in 14-1/2 minutes through Tananarive at
17:22. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control; Vanguard has loss
of signal. Tananarive will pick up Skylab in 13 minutes. At
17 hours 8 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2903/I
Time: 12:20 CDT, 83:17:20 GMT
2/6/74

20 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab approaching acquisi-
tion through Tananarive.
for about 9-1/2 minutes, though we expect to be in antenna blockage
the last part of the pass. Next station contact in 44 minutes
through Hawaii at - make that through stand by.
CC Roger. Through Hawaii at 18:07. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. Getting a little
noisy here, so I'ii eall it 2-i/2 minutes to LOS. Next
station contact in 37 minutes through Hawaii at 18:07. Out.
PAO This is Skylah Control. Skylab has
moved out of range at Tananarive. The next station is
Hawaii in 34 minutes. At 17 hours 33 minutes Greenwich
5 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab approaching acquisition
at Hawaii.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Hawaii
for almost 8 minutes.
Next station contact in 22-1/2 minutes through the Vanguard
at sea at 18:36. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Hawaii has
loss of signal. The tracking ship Vanguard will pick up
Skylab in 20 minutes. At 18 hours 15 minutes Greenwich mean
time, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2904/I
TIME: 13:35 CDT, 83:18:35 GMT
2/6/74

35 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab coming up on
acquisition through the tracking ship Vanguard.
Vanguard for 9-1/2 minutes. I got a question or two about
the urine return container situation.
SPT Go ahead.
CC Okay, Ed, how many trays have this
interference problem?
SPT Okay, Bruce, there's probably about
two out of four. The other two are reasonably tight, but I think
I can get them in. However, in two of them there's some
interference.
CC These are the two thicker ones?
SPT Affirm.
CC Can you tell us where it's located i.e.
in the center of the tray, the outboard rows, both, or
all over?
SPT I have to go down there and look it all
over, Bruce. There's - I would imagine six or seven or so in
each one of them scattered throughout which are relatively
high.
CC Okay, Ed, our concern here is we're
worried that possibly we'll get some of the trays all the
way in and some of the trays part way in, part way out, will
be jammed where we couldn't go either way and we'll lose the whole
ball game based on that. And I guess what we'll need to
do is to pick a time later in the day, if it's not convenient now,
probably isn't, where you could go down there and look at
the trays and we could talk to you in real time on the subject.
Over.
SPT Okay, Bruce.
CC Skylab, this is Houston; i minute to LOS.
Next station contact in 16-1/2 minutes through Tananarive
at 19:01. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Space station
is out of range at Vanguard now. Tananarive will have the
next acquisition in 15 minutes. Science Pilot Ed Gibson
reports some difficulty in fitting several of the blood
and urine sample trays into their return container. It's
not considered to be in the major problem catagory and that
situation will be addressed further later today. At 18 hours
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2905/I
Time: 14:00 CDT 83:19:00 GMT
02/06/74

Greenwich mean time. Tananarive is about to acquire Skylab.
for 3 minutes. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. i minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 38-1/2 minutes through Hawaii
at 19:43, with a data/voice tape recorder dump at AOS. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Skylab is out
of range of the Tananarive station. Next acquisition at
Hawaii in 35-1/2 minutes. At 19 hours 7 minutes Greenwich
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2906/I
Time" 14:41 CDT 83:19:41 GMT
2/6/74
PAO 19 hours 41 minutes Greenwich mean time.

The space station Skylab now nearing acquisition through
Hawaii. The crew has been very quiet today, also very busy.
We'll hold the line up now for CAP COMM Bruce McCandless.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Hawaii
for 9 minutes with a data/voice tape recorder dump here.
LOS. Next station contact in 22-1/2 minutes through the
CDR Houston, CDR.
CC Go ahead, Jerry, You _ot about i0 seconds.
CDR Okay. I was just wonderin_ if we're ?oing
to bring the EVA gloves back with us.
CC Negative.
CDR Thank you.
PAO Skylab Control. The space station now
out of range of Hawaii. Pilot Bill Pogue just completing
the last lower body negative pressure device medical test of
the Skylab program. And he's about to begin the last in-
strumented bicycle ergometer run. There's no plan for any
physical training after today. But should the crew have
any time, they can use the bicycle ergometer, so we can't
say that Bill Pogue will be the last one to use the er_ometer
for exercise, whereas he will be the last one to use for
medical test. He should be getting ready to get on the
ergometer now. Next acquisition will be 20 minutes from now.
That'll be through the tracking ship Vanguard, 19 hours
54 minutes, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2907/I
Time: 15:13 CDT 83:20:13 GMT
2/6/74

Space station now nearing acquisition through the tracking
ship Vanguard. Bill Pogue at this time should be working
out on the bicycle ergometer, his last and the Skylab
program's last medical run on that device. Among the various
items that the crew will be returning to Earth day after
tomorrow will be film representing over 1500 handheld
pictures of Earth terrain features. The crew is taking
those pictures with the Nasselblad and Nikon cameras on
board. Film is due to be processed starting Sunday for 12
subsequent days. The handheld film and the Earth resources
experiment package film. Now about 2 seconds from acquisition,
we'll hold the line up for Bruce McCandless.
Vanguard for 8-1/2 minutes with a couple of quick items for
the commander.
CDR Roger, Bruce, go.
CC Okay, Jerry. First item is a reminder
that on your trim burn be sure to get the DSE running in
high bit rate prior to the burn. Nigh bit rate is necessary
in order to the thruster firing data and we'd like to get a
hack hack on this burn in particular. You can reference page
G6-14Alfa of the GNC checklist at time of 55:00, if you need
a checklist reference on it. Over.
CDR Yeah, I think there's a pen and ink
correction in there. I'll see that it gets done.
CC Okay, and the other thing is that after
your trim burn - of course, back on the DSE after the trim
burn we need to make sure that it's OFF for the private
comm, as you're probably aware. It turns out that VHF
uplink gets recorded on the DSE if it's running at all.
But after the trim burn, on page 2-22 of the ATM System
Checklist and Data book to reconfigure the rate gyro
redundancy management load - load all 4s in the blank spaces.
And if you want, I'll hold up while you get the book out.
CDR Okay, I'll be a minute.
CDR Okay, Bruce, I'm in position, go ahead.
CC Okay, Jerry. On page 2-22 under monitor
(garble) rate and information during return to SI and then
we got a bunch of DAS commands. There are three blanks
under rate gyro redundancy management, we want 4's in all the
blanks, i.e. 52015 ENTER; 50014, ENTER; 52015 ENTER; 5 -
CDR Wait a minute, wait a minute, way, way
ahead of me. IVm still trying to get to the page number,
2_22 is a pink page.
CC Negative, it's a white page.
CDR Say again the checklist.
SL-IV MC-2907/2
Time: 15:13 CDT 83:20:13 GMT
2/6/74
CC ATM Systems Checklist and Data, a big

book.
CDR Okay, I'd the GNC checklist, I'm in the
command module. Stand by.
CC CDR, Houston. How are you coming?
CDR Go, Bruce.
CC Okay, page 2-22 ATM Systems Checklist
and Data book. About three-quarters of the way down the
page there's a bunch of DAS entries which starts out DAS
umptiump maneuver time and 13 minutes, rate gyro redundancy
management.
CDR I've got it.
CC Okay, and there are three blanks, we want
a 4 in each of those three blanks.
CDR Okay, that's in.
CC So that, in essence, the first redundancy
management command is 52015, 50014 and then so on.
CDR Right, we got them written in.
CC Okay, that's it, that's all the messages
I got. I'm sorry if we got all wrapped around the axle here,
I must - I might have been too clear or I guess I steered
you up to the command module instead.
CDR Yeah, I headed for the command module
and was getting in there and getting the GNC checklist out.
And this data book has already been put away in the time
capsule, we had to dig it out. That's why we had the delay.
CC Oh, ah, okay. Hey, gee whiz, we - we
didn't realize that but it was - it's probably good to have
it out for the trim burn.
CDR That's right, we'd had to got it out
get it out for that.
CC Okay, we got 1 minute to LOS. And
could you tell us how the center couch installation and
the rate gyro 6-six pack band installation came?
CDR Very quickly, no sweat.
CC Okay, that sounds good to us. And
we'll see you in about 8-1/2 minutes through Ascension at
20:31. Out.
PAO Pilot Bill Pogue just completed the MI71
bicycle ergometer run, the last medical run of the Skylab
program. He was producing over 200 watts of energy, the
equivalent of riding a bicycle up hill. His heart was putting
out 138 beats a minute too and as soon as he quit the
ergometer - quit peddling on the ergometer his heart dropped
about 20 beats immediately. Next acquisition will be 6 minutes
from now. That may be a noisy pass over Ascension, elevation
is about 1 degree for this pass, however, it's the only tracking
SL-IV MC-2907/3
Time: 15:13 CDT 83:20:13 GMT
2/6/74
station between here and Vanguard again. 20 hours 25 minutes,

END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2908/I
Time: 15130 CDT 83:20:30 GMT
216174

The space station now nearing acquisition for a 1 degree
elevation pass over Ascension. At 20:48 Greenwich mean time
this afternoon, the space station will fire four RCS thruster
jets in the command and service module to establish a new
orbit. 30 seconds from acquisition now, we'll hold the line
up for CAP COMM Bruce McCandless.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Ascension
for 3 minutes. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. One minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 1 hour and 19 minutes through
the Vanguard at 21152, with a data/voice tape recorder dump
at AOS. And we show the completion of the last major medical
of the Skylab program.
CDR That is affirmative, Bruce.
CC Good show, troops.
CC And for Jerry, we see the C_C and the IMU,
both of them up, and they're both looking _ood to us. Over.
CDR Roger. Thank you, Bruce,
PAO Loss of signal through Ascension. Next
acquisition will be the Vanguard 1 hour and 15 minutes from
now. Approximately 28 minutes from now at - excuse me
approximately 12 minutes from now at 20:48 Greenwich mean
time, four reaction control system jets aboard the command
and service module will fire for 180 seconds. Velocity will
be 12 feet per second, and that will create a new orbit for
the orbiting space station, 246 by 235 nautical miles. The
added speed will push Skylab about 7 miles further out from
the Earth, and as a result, the space station should remain
in orbit anywhere from 9 months to 2 years longer than origin-
ally planned, possibly through 1983. Trim burn will occur
within 40 miles of the Red Sea as the space station goes
over Egypt, crossin_ the Red Sea. The burn will last through
half-way of the country of Saudi Arabia. It will be dark at
the time the trim burn is begun. Possibly with a strong
telescope Earth viewers could catch the rockets burning.
20 hours 37 minutes, this is _kylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2909/I
Time: 16:51 CDT 83:21:51 GMT
2/6/74
PAO 21 hours 52 minutes Greenwich mean time

The space station is now nearin B acquisition through the
Vanguard tracking ship. Late yesterday and early this
morning, the crew indicated that they had problems getting
the urine chill containers into the urine return container.
Urine chill containers are egg-crate like metal containers
which hold the approximately 2-cubic inch unine-sample bags
in the urine freezer. And the urine return container is a
rather large, approximately 8-foot square, excuse me, 8-cubic
foot container, which is insulated, and which will keep the
urine frozen for approximately 30 hours. The chill containers
won't slip into the urine return container, and yesterday and
this morning the crew and the ground controllers indicated
that they would address themselves to this problem later on.
Well, it's later on and they're trying to figure out a
solution to it. Acquisition - -
Vanguard for ii minutes with a data/voice tape recorder dump.
And we'd like to talk with the SPT on the subject of the
urine return container interference. Over. Oh, and can we
_et a burn report out of the way first?
CDR Yes Bruce, the burn was on time and nominal,
no problems.
CC Okay. We show that the Y_axis rate gyros
were not reconfiBured. We'll take care of that from the
ground here, as well as enabling momentum dump.
CDR Roger. I wasn't able to verify the DELTA-_
very well, because of the bias in the EMS counter, so but
it looked pretty much like every thing ran real well.
CC Okay. Mighty fine. Thank you_ Jer.
CC And if the SPT is at a point where he can
break away now, we'd like to talk about the urine return
container.
SPT Okay, Bruce. I took and looked it over.
And did a couple of things. One is there was a little wooden
clip or whatever that soft material is made out of, I was able
to smooth that down with the file we have on board. And then
I tried the various _eometries of fitting that in, Fitting
all of the four trays in so that the - wherever it bulged in
one place, it would be taken up by slack in another, and I
was able to work it around to the point where I could Fet
four two of them all the way in, and the other two almost
all the way in. And I - and with a small amount of extra
force, I'm sure I could have gotten them In. The only problem
with this technique is - that was evident is that two of the
samples already have their integrity broken, although they're
still intact in terms of solid ice. I think on return day I
could probably _et them in there, but we miBht have a couple
of them with their integrity broken.
SL IV MC-2909/2
Time: 16:51 CDT 83:21:51 GMT
2/6/74
CC Okay. Ed, there's one possibility here

as far as Betting them in that might help you. If you take
the Teflon sheet out of the humidity control device in the
film vault, you know, there's one on the inside of each
drawer, I think, and one somewhere else in the film vault.
It's just about the riBht size for use as sort of a shoe
horn to put over the top of the drawer and this would hold
the lids of the sample bags depressed while you're forcing
the drawer in, then this could be drawn back out after you
Bet the drawer in place. How does that strike you?
SPT Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I'll
go ahead and look at it. I was using those flat metal plates
for the MO71/73 return container. What are they, about 6
or 7 inches by i0? Using that as a shoe horn and it seemed
to help. But Teflon sounds like a better idea yet.
CC Okay, these Teflon jobs, the length of
them is about a quarter of an inch length - less than the
width of the urine return container_ so It's almost a per-
fect fit. There's no cuttinH required, and that - that's
about 40,000th thick.
SPT Okay. That sounds good. I'ii go ahead
and take a look at it.
CC Okay. And just for completeness, we had
a list of questions drawn up here by the people that are
working the problem here. I'd like to go ahead and ask them
anyway, if you'd bear with us.
SPT Okay.
CC How far are the samples projecting above
the top of the tray?
SPT Gee, I'ii have to go down and measure
that first, l'm estimating on the order of a quarter of
an inch. The problem is that it's not just one or two
samples per drawer, a few of them are a little higher than
the others, but when they were frozen, if one would freeze a
little higher than the other one, then all the subsequent
ones would net to freezing at that same height. And I_ii
just have to Bo down there and give you a more accurate
measurement if they want. Net result is though, that four
of them will just about fit all the way across.
CC Hey. I don't think that we need you
to actually measure it. Your estimate of a quarter of an
inch is adequate for our purposes. Are the samples loose
to the point where you could take one out, and say put it
in the can crusher and put it back in, or are they pretty
well frozen into place?
SPT Oh, I'd say Just about all of them
are frozen in place. There might be one or two that if I
SL IV _C-2909/3
Time: 16:51 CDT 83:21:5] GMT
2/6/74
wedged them a little bit they'd come out, but almost all of
them are frozen right in there.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2910/I
Time: 16:57 CDT 83:21:57 GMT
2/6/74
CC Okay, when you wound up this last time

with two of them all the way in and two almost all the way
in, how far out where the two that went almost all the in
when you first encountered resistance to pushing them?
SPT I encountered resistance to pushing them
almost from the start, but I was careful to try to wedge
them in there in such a way that l wasn't breaking the
integrity of any of them. Unfortunately, there was two of
them which did have their integrity broken, l_d say the
force required is impulsive and probably around 20 pounds
or so.
CC About how far out was the tray still

sticking when you stopped?
SPT Okay, they were sticking about the
height of two samples, whatever that works out to be;
maybe, about 3, 4, 3 inches or so.
CC Yeah, okay, two-thirds of a compartment.
SPT The resistance as far as going in was
pretty much uniform all the way and the only reason I didn't
go any further is that the only thing we have to pull them
out is the strap whereas if you leave them a little bit out
you can grab the side and pull. But l'm confident I could have
gotten them in there.
CC Okay, we - we applaud that discretion.
And one other comment, Jerry mentioned that there was a
little bit of a ridge on the outside _ apparently on the
outside edges of the tray so that it has a wedge effect.
We were wondering if you've noticed that also, or, you or
he could elaborate on it.
SPT Well, by a wedge, yeah. This I mentioned
yesterday. On the outside the - you have a middle bottom
to it or I should say the whole inside of the container is
middle and it interfaces with a top part of, looks like
fiberg! - fiberboard or something of that nature which is - had
the bottom piece cut into it, or I should say the middle
piece which goes all the way up to about I inch from the top,
it cut into this fiberboard and the fiberboard turned -
doesn't go straight up, it actually has a wedge effect. On
one side I found that the material that cut back a little
bit further than needed so that there actually was a slight
overhang and that is what I filed off just a couple of hours
ago to try to ease a little extra space there. And so what
I've been doing is easing that wedge effect on the one that
I put in today. On that side l was putting the samples
towards that face so that they won't be going into the
middle sheet which would act like guillotine.
SL-IV MC-2910/2
Time_ 16:57 CDT 83:21:57 GMT
2/6/74
CC Okay, so you're talking - you're

describing the the broad internal surface of the urine
retain con return container itself, is that correct?
SPT The top part of a urine return container
which is around i or 1-1/2 inches. I'ii have to go down
and take a look. It's the material which is not metal but
is fiberboard.
CC Yeah. Okay, we copy all that. Thank you
very much, Ed, and we're heartened by your commentary to the
point that you think you can get it in. And we - we suggest
the shoe horn technique with a sheet of Teflon and we'll
continue working the problem down here.
SPT Okay. One good thing I got from Crip
last night is that these usually stay frozen so that when
we get on the ship if the integrity of any of them is broken
you can still use the sample. That was my understanding,
I hope that's true.
CC Right, we have verified that. We're not
particularly concerned about breaking even a number of these
samples bags. We do expect that they'll stay frozen and
that they can be handled as little yellow ice cubes.
SPT Okay, that's good, Bruce. We'll _et them
in there.
CC And, by the way, if you think that the
Teflon that's associated with the humidity control units up in
the film vault is too thick, we suggest the Teflon sheet
which is on the treadmill which is half ahe thickness or
20/1000 of an inch thick which you will have to cut to make
it the proper size.
SPT Yeah, that's another _ood idea. As a
matter of fact, there are some points of that which are now
at negative thickness.
CC Say now at what?
SPT I should say zero thickness
CC (Laughter)
SPT We've - we've gone through it in some
spots.
CC Okay, I guess we got that input the other
day and relayed to Bill Thornton and we thought you were
pulling a great big joke on him. Didn't seem possible -
SPT When Jerry gets on there and starts charging
and he just doesn't turn off.
CC (Laughter) we didn't know we - didn't know
we had such a hard charger there, didn't seem possible we could
work out through a sheet of Teflon in only 84 days.
PLT If we could just get him to clip his toe
nails, everything would be all right.
SL-IV MC-2910/3
Time: 16:57 CDT 83:21:57 GMT
2/6/74
CC (Laughter) Okay, 30 seconds to LOS here.

We get out the shepherd's truck and push you guys over the
hill.
CDR Thank heavens.
CC 2-1/2 min - 3 minutes to Ascension at
22:05. Out.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2911/I
Time: 17"03 CDT 83:22:03 GMT
2_6_74
PAO Loss of signal through Vanguard. Next

acquisition less than 2 minutes from now. The apparent
problem with the urine sample containers and the urine re-
turn containers is that when first tested and frozen on
Earth, the urine sample containers, which are plastic con-
tainers approximately 2 inches by i inch by 2 inches - or
4 q square inch - cubic inches rather. I previously said
2 cubic inches. These containers when frozen on Earth, the
urine will settle and they'll freeze square, whereas when
frozen in an zero-g environment, of course, they don't freeze
square. And according to the crew, if one froze out of shape,
the rest of them tended to do the same. They are sticking
up out of the sample container drawer, which is about 18
inches by 2 inches high by 12 inches deep, and has two rows
of drawers in it. These containers, these samples containers
for the urine, the plastic bags are sticking up over the top
of the drawer preventing the drawer from slipping into a
slot in the urine return container. The suggestion this time
around is if they try the Teflon sheet, on the inside of the
film vault doors to see if they can't use that as a shoe horn
and push the drawers into the proper slots. There are four
drawers in the container, and Ed is having problems with
all four of them. The other suggestion is that they take the
Teflon coatinB sheet off of the treadmill and use it, since
it's half the thickness of the Teflon sheet off the film vault
doors. Ed, however, said the Teflon treadmill sheet has
negative thickness indicating that the crew has really worked
through that. Acquisition now through Ascension. Hold the
line up for Bruce McCandless.
CC - through Ascension for 10-1/2 minutes.
Out.
CC CDR, this is Houston. Over.
PLT Stand by, Bruce.
CC Roger.
CDR Go ahead, Bruce.
CC Yes it is, Jerry. Looking over your
shoulder on the command module telemetry, we need to get the
UP TELEMETRY switch to ACCEPT, and left there so we can
play our little game on the uplink and get your state vector
and stuff. And we also like to get the spacecraft control
switch to SCS please. Over.
CDR Okay.
CC Thank you.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. About 1-1/4
minutes to LOS. Next station contact in 35 minutes through
Guam at 22:49. We have the commanders final phone call
scheduled at Guam at 22:49, LEFT ANTENNA switching to RIGHT.
Over.
SL-IV MC2911/2
Time: 17:03 CDT 83:22:03 GMT
2/6/74
CDR Roger, 22:49, LEFT to RIGHT.

CC And for Bill, we'll repeat it again
later. We have his final phone call scheduled at 23:29,
23:29 at Vanguard, LEFT to RIGHT.
PLT Roger.
PAO Loss of signal through Ascension. Next
acquisition will be 32 minutes. That'll be through Guam.
It's that time of the mission, time for the Skylab finals.
Bill Pogue and Jerry Carr's final family comm this evening
coming up, and Bill Pogue just completed his final exercise
period, the final exercise period of anybody for Skylab
using the bicycle ergometer once again. According to Flight
Surgeon Paul Buchanan, on the MI71 bicycle ergometer, all
three crewmen have been performing more efficiently during
the last month they've been up there than they did before.
They've been recovering faster. It's taken 2 minutes or less
for their heartbeats to recover from the 130 to 140 range
that they've been -
END OF TAPE
SL IV _C-2912/I
Time: 17:17 GMT
2/6/74
PAO _ - did before. TheyTve been recovering

faster. It's taken 2 minutes or less for their heartbeats to
recover from the 130 to 140 range that theylve been during
the time that they weTe exercising o_ the MITI down to their
normal of about 80, and they appear to be using less oxygen.
That goes right along with the more efficient performance.
Their performance on the MITI during the preceding months
has been the same as their baseline prior to launch. They
started out with higher heartbeats and less efficient metabolic
rates the first couple of weeks that they were aboard, and
they picked right up on that, _etting much better at the
equivalent of riding a Bicycle uphill. Tomorrow morning at
ii:00 Greenwich mean time, an interesting thing aboard the
Skylab, control moment gyro number i, the bane of the Skylab
mission, will be prepared to be turned back on again. 14
hours from now, they'll be turning the heaters on and they'll
leave those heaters on for 24 hours, bringing the bearing
temperatures back up to around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. At
11:55 Greenwich mean time on Friday morning, they are going
to apply current to the CMG to try and spin it up again. It's
no_ been averaging about 40 rpms for the past several months.
Although that's probably not an accurate figure, as the
telemetry transducers that pick up wheel speed have a plus
or minus 200 rpm rating to them. So, Friday morning at 11:55
Greenwich mean time, the guidance people here in Mission
Control will have two options. If it looks llke CMG number 2
is not working, they're going to shut it down immediately. If
it looks like it is working, they're going to leave it fired
up and they're going to try to control the attitude of the
space station once again in a three CMG mode. They are not
too worried about the current drain, the nominal current
drain is 1.025 amperes. The _uidance officer indicated that
if they get up to 2.5 amperes, that's still all right, as
long as it seems to be operating at a nominal wheel speed
with bearing temperatures about 3 degrees apart from each
other. So with the crew gone, they're going to try and see if
CMG number i will work again. Next acquisition 29 minutes
from now through Guam. 22:20 Greenwich mean time, this is
Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2913/I
Time: 17:48 CDT 83:22:48 GMT
2/6/74

The space station now nearing acquisition through Guam. Flight
Director Neil Hutchinson has indicated that he's going to be
15 minutes early for tonight's change-of-shift press briefing.
That'll be at 6 o'clock, or roughly 12 minutes from now in
the briefing room in Building i. Also, Bill Pogue has just
finished housekeeping 60-K, which is a drain of the water
line from the water tanks to the wardroom. That involves
venting the water to the waste tank. That's in the odd chance
that the water line should freeze up and break. However, the
people at Huntsville indicate that there's zero chance that
the space station temperature would drop to freezing. Just
the opposite has been true in the past. That it's overheated
rather than underheated. CAP COMM Bob Crippen is coming up
with Flight Director Don Puddy. Bruce McCandless is leaving
also. So we'll hold the line up now for CAP COMM Bob Crippen.
CC Good afternoon, Skylab. We're AOS Guam
for i0 minutes.
SPT Hello, Crip. How are you doing tonight?
CC Just fine, Ed. And you?
SPT Pretty good. Is this your last session
with us?
CC Well, this is the last I get to set - sit in
with the crimson team. However, I'll be here to talk to you
when we - you're coming home.
SPT Hey, that's right. That's right.
CC And the crimson team's reminding me that
they'll be sitting here - sitting with the workshop.
SPT Take good care of it. What - what's the
lifetime of it look like now?
CC Depending on who you talk to and by our
models of the near dynamic characteristics of the upper
Earth's atmosphere, it's somewhere between 6 and i0 years.
SPT Very good. What kind of mode will this
be in? Just essentially end up with a gravity gradient type?
CC Rog. That's - We're just going to put it
in what we consider - what we think is it's gravity gradient
attitude and leave it, and hopefully it'll stabilize there.
SPT When will you stop send sending all the
commands and monitoring it?
CC It's going to be running for approximately
24 hours - 22 hours after - after you guys leave. Got a few
little tests we're going to run.
SPT Don't want to do them with us with us
on board, huh?
CC You guys have got - you _uys have _ot
enough - enough problems.
SPT Got some pyros located in here we dontt
know about?
SL IV MC-2913/2
Ti_e: 17:48 CDT 83:22:48 GMT
2/6/74
CC No, no, not at all. They just didn't

want to come to any splashdown parties. That's all.
CC How's it been going today? Everything
clicking along pretty smooth? Not too rushed?
SPT Oh, yeah, as Jerry said, we're just
waiting for the other shoe to drop and a lot of things you
got to get done tomorrow on - after we get up. I think we
got a pretty good handle on it. Don't see any show stoppers.
But with the impossible, you never can tell.
CC Very good. See, I was noting this morning
in looking back and reviewing the air-to-ground comments
that you and Story were competing for who got the most
sleep last night.
SPT Flight says that Story won hands down.
CC That's what I hear. I'm probably going
to be in competition tonight. We're going to stay on until
till we wake you up again.
SPT Who's going to wake up who?
CC (Laughter) That's going to be the
question. You might better set your alarm clocks.
CC SPT, Ed, incidentally, when you talk to
Jer again, when he comes back from the command module, we
noted that he was looking at the CMC clock and the data in
that is meaningless right now. We'll be loading that tomorrow
before it will - and it will start making sense.
SPT Okay. We got spring back there yet, Crip,
or are we still in winter?
CC Well, I'ii tell you what. You missed it.
The last few days here have been fantastic. Wish we could
have bottled some of that weather and stowed it up for you.
But, today, we are having a little cold front move in, and I
understand it's supposed to be freezing by tomorrow night.
SPT You gotta do better than that.
CC We'll work on it. By the time you guys
get back here Sunday, we'll have pretty weather, we hope.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2914/I
Time: 17:58 CDT 83:22:58 GMT
2/6/74
CC Okay, we're i minute from LOS. Next

station contact is through the Vanguard at 23:30, that's
about 31 minutes away. And as Bruce told you a while ago,
we _ot Bill's phone call set up there, ANTENNA, LEFT going
to RIGHT. And also we'll be standing by for the evening
status report there.
SPT Okay, Crip, thanks, talk to you there.
CC Okeydoke°
PAO Loss of signal through Guam. Next
acquisition will be 28 minutes from now, thatVll be through
the tracking ship Vanguard. And if the press conference is
still going on, we'll record the Vanguard pass for you.
Right now, wetre going to bring you the evening press con-
ference.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2915/I
Time: 18:32 CDT 82:23:32 GMT
2/6/74

This is Skylab Control. The space station now in acquisition
over Vanguard, and we'll be playing catchup until we're live
air-to-ground.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are AOS through the
Vanguard for i0 minutes.
CDR Hello Bruce, your voice has changed.
CC You're right. You're right. So has your's
Ed.
CDR (garble)
CC By the way, we see the time display is
still on the DSKY up there, and we're going to go ahead and
blank it out here, so the relays won't be hot all night.
CDR Okay.
CC And you want to give us an evening status
report?
CDR Yes sir. Sleep: CDR, 6.0, 5 heavy, i
light; SPT, 9.7, 8 heavy, 1.7 light; PLT, 7.5, all heavy.
Volumes: 230; 270; 210. Water gun: 9026; 5187; 2199.
Body mass: 6.300, 6.302, 6.306; 6.373, 6.374, 6.375; 6.265,
6.265, 6.265. Exercise: no change. We have all substituted
Mark III for Mark II, and we're doing what we think is probably
a good imitation - - new exercises. Medications: CDR, chloral
hydrate tonight_ SPT, Dalmane tonight; PLT, a Seconal last
night, and one tonight. Clothing: CDR, socks, shirt, and
shorts; SPT, socks, shirt and shorts; PLT, socks, shorts, and
T-shirt. Let's see. I'ii get to the photo log later, Food log:
CDR, salt 9 17.0, deviations, plus one lemonade, minus one straw-
berry drink, plus chocolate chip bar, rehydration water, plus
2.0; _PT, 4.0 salt, plus tuna, rehydration water, plus 12.0_
PLT, 4.0 salt, plus a crispy bar, plus green beans, zero
rehydration water. Flight plan deviations: none. Shopping
list accomplishments: Documentary photos of the treadmill
today, and also complying with the spirit of the permanent
general message requesting data on the treadmill. Inoperable
equipment: none. Unscheduled stowage: I stowed the EVA
gloves in W-730 locker instead of snaking _ snapping them
on to the outside of locker 763. I did this because they
would have been in the way. It's our understanding that
we're not bringing the EVA gloves home. So - - the other item
is India Romeo 12 canister, which is stowed in B-l, we
discovered today is empty because we knew we had the film
available. And rather than break into B-I, which is loaded
to the gills right now, we have stowed the film in another
canister and it will be stowed in the 8-hole bag labeled
late film. And we're not sure where we're going to put it;
it'll either be A-5 or Rl3, and I'ii let you know. This is
all the film that we're trying to shoot up to bring home.
SL IV MC-2915/2
Time: 18:32 CDT 82:23:32 GMT
2/6/74
Could be a bunch of Nikon Charlie X-rays, a couple of Charlie

Indias and one India Romeo. And one other item, the leg bands
that were wrapped today to be stowed were to have been stowed
in Bravo I. There's no room in Bravo i, and when I find a
better place, I'll notify you. That's it.
CC Okay. Good rundown, Jer_ thank you.
CDR Oh, more shopping list for you. Venous
compliance on the CDR and the PLT today.
CC Okay. I'm sure that Dr. Bill Thornton
will appreciate that.
CDR Okay. On the photo log. This is pretty
the final recap. Well, no, I guess we can still give you
some Nikon information tomorrow. 16-millimeter M479,
transporter 5, Charlie India 95, 00, Charlie India 98; another
M479, Charlie India 97, 00, Charlie India 95; Documentary
photos, treadmill, Charlie India 65, 18, Charlie India 81;
body acrobatics, Charlie India 65, 00, Charlie India 81;
M487-4 Foxtrot, Charlie India 87, 00, Charlie India 79.
Okay. Nikons 01 and 02 are empty. Nikon 03 has Charlie
India 114, frame count is 28. Nikon 04 is empty. Nikon 05
has Charlie X-ray 63 with 23 frames on the count. The
Hasselblad is Charlie 45 - -
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2916/I
Time: 18:37 CDT 83:23:37 GMT
2/6/74
CDR - is empty; Nikon 05 has Charlie X-ray

63 with 23 frames on the count; the Hasselblad is Charlie
X-ray 45 - 45 with a count of 040. The status on Nikon
film is Charlie X-ray 63 and Charlie X-ray 58, and India
Romeo 12 are exposed, and we would like - we're going Ket
at Charlie India 117, 60 Charlie X-ray 60, and Charlie
X-ray 58, Charlie X-ray 59. And then all the rest is NA:
the ETC, the EREP and Drawer A Configuration.
CC Roger, you guys are really taking pictures.
CDR Well, we'd rather point the camera at
something and shoot it than just click off the frames.
CC We concur. And Jet, I've got one item
here. We're going to be running a little CBRM test tonight
while you guys are trying to sleep and it would help us
if we could somebody to do a REG ADJUST for us on panel 206.
We need to take both POTS i and 2, 15 degrees clockwise.
And
CDR Okay, Ed's on his way.
CC Okay, we need to mark the spot where it's
at if it's still possible.
SPT And I've marked the correct mark.
CC Marked the mark, rog. We_ll take a quick
look at it here and see if that looks satisfactory.
CC SPT, Houston. Thank you, Ed, that - that
REG ADJUST looks good.
SPT You're welcome, Crip.
PAO Okay, we're live air-to-ground now.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are i minutes from
LOS, next station contact is Ascension at 23:47, and that's
about 7 minutes away from now. See you there.
PAO Loss of signal through Vanguard, next
acquisition 6 minutes, that'll be through Ascension, a brief
dropout and then Canary which will be the evening medical
conference and straight through Madrid. Crew has been taking
pictures like mad the past three days, 125 frames a day for
the past three days. Also they'll be bring back with them
i00 and - 100,800 feet of magnetic data for the S191, S192,
193 and 194 instruments, and 20,700 frames of Earth resources
experiment package pictures. Next acquisition 5 minutes from
now, that'll be through Ascension. 23:41 GMT, this is
Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2917/I
Time: 18:45 CDT 83:23:45 GMT
2/6/74

Space station now nearing acquisition through Ascension.
And we're told the crew will be listening to the "Soul of
Sain" by the I01 Strin B Orchestra. That musical enchantment
about 40 seconds from now. Acquisition after Ascension will
be Canary, that'll be the evening medical conference and
then they'll go right into a Nadrid pass. So we'll be keeping
the llne up through Nadrid. Less than 30 seconds away now
from the "Soul of Spain" and Bob Crippen.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are AOS through
Ascension, we've got you for about a minute and a half here,
and we'll - there'll be a short dropout of about a minute
and we'll turn it over - turn the mike over to Dr, Paul
Buchanan to - for the med conference.
CC Okay, we're about a minute from LOS, and
as I said before, we'll - next pass in about a minute and 15
seconds is the med conference.
PLT Roger, Crip°
PAO Short loss of signal through Ascension
as we reacquire at Canary. Canary will be a medical
conference site. Some erroneous information earlier, the
i01 String won't be played until the space station nears
the coast of Spain and the album is called "Soul of Spain" not
the song, so we still don't know what we'll be listening to.
(Music)
PAO As promised, the i01 Strings.
(Music)
CC CDR, Houston. You got a _ got a moment
to chat, Jer?
CDR Sure do, Crip, go.
CC Okay, we've still got you for about 2-1/2
minutes here through Madrid, next station contact is going
to be at Guam at 00:28. Do you want to call there or do
you want me to just knock it off for the night?
CDR Oh, it doesn't matter, Crip, if you got
something to call us about go ahead.
CC Okay, fine. I don't anticipate we'll
have any traffic there, we can _o ahead and give you a AOS-
LOS call.
CDR Okay, good.
CDR Hey, Crip, we're interested in bringing
back a Nikon, one of the small - the mechanical Nikons with
our last roll of Charlie X-ray film in it for out the
window pictures. Wonder if you could see if you could _et
us an okay on that?
CC We'll check it out for you,
SL-IV MC-2917/2
Time: 18:45 CDT 83:23:45 GMT
2/6/74
CDR Okay, we think that with the photomic on

a Nikon we can do a better Job of framing pictures, and we_d
like to take some pictures of the workshop also out _ out
the ha - side hatch window using the Nikon.
CC Sounds like a pretty good idea. We'll
see of we can run it through the board. _e're about 15
seconds from LOS, and next station contact is Guam in 25
minutes, and that's -
CDR Okay, and we would propose either the
55 or 135 lens.
CC Okeydoke.
PAO Music to go over the Mediterranean by.
4 minutes Greenwich mean time. Space station now out of
range of the Madrid tracking antenna. Ed Gibson (sic)
apparently turning into a photographer. He wants to bring the
Nikon on board the Apollo command module indicating that he
can frame better using the photomic head of the Nikon rather
than the lack of finder which the Hasselblad doesn't have.
Hasselbald is just a point and shot camera and the Nikon you
can actually view what you're going to be taking a picture of.
They suggested the 55 and 135 lens. We'll brin_ you Dr.
Paul Buchanan's medical report when he finishes writing it.
Next acquisition 23 minutes from now, that'll be through
Guam. 5 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylah Control.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2918/I
Time: 19:27 CDT 84:00:27 GMT
2/6/74
PAO 27 minutes Greenwich mean time. The space

station now nearing acquisition through Guam. The crew is
already in their presleep period. They're going to bed at
8 o'clock Houston time tonight. They get up at 4:00 a.m.
Houston time tomorrow morning for final day of deactivation.
According to all indications, the crew is moving along as
planned, no last-minute rush. Earlier they indicated that
they were waiting for the other shoe to drop. That shoe will
drop tomorrow when they turn the last of the instruments
aboard Skylab off and get the medical experiment results into
the Apollo command module. We'll _o over Honeysuckle on this
revolution, and we'll keep the line up between Guam and
Honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is expected to be the good night
pass. We'll hold the line up now for CAP COI_M Bob Crippen°
(Music)
CC And we're with you through Guam for 6-1/2
minutes.
CDR Rog, Crip.
PLT Roger, Crip, and the PLT here. I'd like
a GO on the 60 kilo. What step in the procedures says to
notify you before proceding on 60 kilo.
CC Okay. We'll check that out for you.
PLT Okay. It's all ready to go.
(Music)
CC PLT, Houston. You got a GO to continue
on that.
PLT Gracias, Crip.
(Music)
CC Skylab, Houston. We are 1 minute from
LOS. Next station contact in 5 minutes through Honeysuckle.
That's at 00:40.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC See you there.
PAO Loss of signal through Guam. Reacquisition
less than 4 minutes from now. That'll be through Honeysuckle.
That's expected to be the good night call. The crew is now
about 24 minutes away from bedtime tonight at 8:00 p.m. central
daylight time, or i o'clock Greenwich mean time_. According
to the National, excuse me, Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion National Weather Service, the Space Flight Meteorlogioal
Group, the landing area 150 miles southwest of San Diego
should be quite nice for landing. The landing zone has cur-
rently got partly cloudy skies with northerly surface winds
around 25 knots. Those winds are expected to decrease to
18 to 22 knots by Friday morning. Seas range between
5 and 7 feet, which is a little bit high, and the temperature
is near 60 degrees. So the weather sounds quite nice, actually.
Tomorrow morning, ii:00 Greenwich mean time, the control
SL IV MC-2918/2
Time: 19:27 CDT 84:00:27 GMT
2/6/74
moment gyro number i heaters, bearing heaters will be turned

on. They will be left on for 24 hours to allow the bearing
temperatures to stabilize. And then at 11:55 Greenwich mean
time on Friday morning after the crew has long actually,
after the crew has left the workshop, control moment gyro
nunber i will be fired up again, having not been on for
several months now. And once they apply current to the
_yro, they have two options. If it looks like the gyro is
not working, which means that the current starts to go way
out of range, which on Friday's case is 2.5 amperes, or if
the temperatures start to converge, then they'll shut CMG
number i off, never to test it again. If however, CMG number
i looks like it's me.ring up to wheel speed, which is 8912
rpms, then they'll let it stabilize at that speed, even if
it's drawing more current than it should. Nominal current
is 1.025 amperes, and they'd allowed a new parameter of 2.5
amperes for Friday's test. If the wheel is rotating at
approximately 8900 rpm, they're pretty lenient about the
wheel speed, too - -
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2919/I
Time: 19:39 CDT 84:00:39 GMT
2/6/74
PAO - they've allowed a new parameter of

2.5 amperes for Friday's test. If the wheel is rotating at
approximately 8900 RPM, they're pretty lenient about the
wheel speed, too, and below 2.5 amperes of current being
drawn, then they'll use CMG number i, 2 and 3 once again in
a 3 CMG configuration and try to stabilize the workshop in
a solar inertial attitude to see how the CMG works and also
to get a final hack on what possibly went wrong with CMG number
i. Hold the line up now for an expected good night call to
the crew of Skylab III now less than two days away from being
back on terra firma. CAP COMM Bob Crippen will be here
tomorrow night also. About i0 seconds away from AOS.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're with you through
Honeysuckle for 3-1/2 minutes.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're about 45 seconds
from LOS, next station contact is a low pass through
Vanguard at 01:lO. That's supposed to be after you _uys
have retired so we'll go ahead and say good night here. And
we'll try to get back with you tomorrow on the - the Nikon
question, Jer.
CDR Okay, Crip, thanks. Good night,
CC Night.
SPT Night, Crip,
CC Take care.
PAO Loss of siBnal throuKh Honeysuckle Creek
tracking station. This was the good night call, no more
communication toniBht. Tomorrow mornlnK the crew will Ket
up at 4:00 a.m. central daylight time, that's 8 hours from
now. Eight hours and 15 minutes the crew will get back up for
their final deactivation day. And then tomorrow afternoon
at i:00 p.m. central daylight time, 18:00 Greenwich mean time
the crew will be to sleep and they will get back up at
9:00 p.m. tomorrow Houston time or 2:00 Greenwich mean time,
and that will be their wakeup for the return trip home. On
today's fliKht plan a number of finals. The final MO92/MI71
lower body negative pressure device and bicycle ergometer
metabolic medical tests was completed today_, for Commander
Carr early this morning, and for Pilot Bill PoBue in the
afternoon. Commander Carr also performinB the trim b_rn
today, the final trim burn for the orbital workshop, placing
it in a new 246 by 235 nautical mile orbit extending its
orbital life around the Earth approximately one year. Also
this evening Bill performed the last physical training
exercise that will be performed aboard the Skylab usin_ the
bicycle ergometer. Doctors here are very pleased. The crew
got very efficient in the last month of their stay aboard
the Skylab, recovering very rapidly after their workout, less
SL-IV MC-2919/2
Time: 19:39 CDT 84:00:39 GMT
2/6/74
than 2-minute recovery time for all three crewmen as opposed

to several minutes more at the beginning of t_eir mission.
Tomorrow morning at ii:00 the CMG number i heater turn-on,
that's part of an experiment to try and fire CMG number i up
again. And a final note on the weather for the recovery, it's
still holding, looks like it'll be a nice pleasant day in -
off the coast of Southern California, Friday. We'll bring
the line down now, however, we haven't read the evening
medical report to you so we'll we back shortly with the
evening medical report fro_ Dr. Paul Buchanan. 48 minutes
Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2920/I
Time: 19:50 CDT 84:00:50 GMT
2/6/74
PAO 50 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is

Skylab Control. We now have Dr. Paul Buchanan's medical
report, which I'ii read to you. "Today marks the completion
of the inflight medical experiments planned for the Skylab
program study of man in space. Jerry Cart, the commander,
and Bill Pogue performed their final MO92/MI70 runs in good
order, and without unusual symptoms. The science pilot, Ed
Gibson performed his final H133 sleep data run last night,
completing the inflight studies in that series. The crewmen
will all take sleeping medication tonight in order to facili-
tate the transition to the new sleep/work cycle necessitated
by the deactivation and deorbit time lines. They are in a
happy frame of mind and seem fully able to cope with crowded
work schedules and demanding tasks ahead. A decongestant
will be taken prophylactically before entry to allay the poss-
ibility of ear or sinus blockage when returning to the
greater pressure of the Earth's atmosphere." And that's the
final crew medical report for Dr. Paul Buchanan. Tomorrow's
final medical report for the Skylab program will be given
by Dr. Charles Ross. We'll bring the line down now this
evening and we'll be back with you at 4:00 a.m. Houston
time with Jack Riley. At 51 minutes Greenwich mean time,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2921/I
Time: 04:07 CDT 84:09:07 GMT
2/7/74
PAO - through the Hawaii tracking station.

Wakeup planned at this station. CAP COMM is astronaut Bruce
McCandless, Flight Director Don Puddy
CC (Music: "Shaft").
CC Skylab, Houston. We are about a minute
and a half from LOS here at Hawaii. We'll have you again
in about 3-1/2 minutes at Goldstone, and the crimson team is -
the last time we'll have been working with you. It's been fun.
I'd llke to hid you a - bid you a fond adieu. We'll see you
Sunday night and only sorry we have to do it by waking
you up at such a weird hour in the morning.
SPT Thank you very much, Crip, and the crim-
son team. We enjoyed working with you. It's been fun. We'll see
you Sunday
CC Rog.
CDR So long, guys.
CC So long. You guys are even coherent
this weird hour, which is more than I am.
CDR Bill sends his hest from the BMMD.
CC Okay_ very good. Better there than other
places.
CREW That's where Jer is.
CC Yes, the SI is kind of handy there.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Hawaii has loss
of signal. Goldstone will pick up Skylab in about a minute
45 seconds. CAP COMM Bob Crippen still on duty during the
Hawaii pass. He and Flight Director Don Puddy and Puddy's
team of flight controllers are being relieved at this time
by Flight Director Nell Hutchinson and his crew. Bruce
McCandless will be the CAP COMM on Hutchinson crew. Wakeup
music this morning was the theme from "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes.
About a minute away from Goldstone acquisition. We'll stand
by,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2922/I
Time: 04:19 CDT, 84:09:19 GMT
2/7/74
PAO tracking station. Wakeup planned

at this station.
for 7 minutes with your coherent silver team stationed down
here. Out.
LOS. Next station contact in 5 minutes through Bermuda at
09:32. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Bermuda
CC Skylab, this is Houston. 1 minute to LOS.
Next station contact in 2 minutes through Canary Islands.
Out. And we'll have a data/voice tape recorder dump there.
CDR How about a little news here, Bruce.
CC Okay. We'll have it at Canary.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Bermuda has
loss of signal. However, the Canary Island station will
pick up Skylab momentarily. We'll stand by for the pass
starting at Canaries and ending at the Ascension station.
Canary and Ascension Islands for 16-1/2 minutes with a data/
voice tape recorder dump and the morning news summary.
The Nixon administration has told Congress that it plans to
end most wage and price controls by April 30 and proposes to
rely in large part on persuasion in helping to hold down
prTces. Washington again: Everybody knows that Thomas
Edison invented the electric light bulb and the phonograph.
But, how many know that Hedy Lamarr, holds a patent as co-
inventor of a complex communications system designed to direct
torpedoes at moving ship targets? Or that Mrs. Richard
Rodgers wife of the composer, invented the "Johnny Mop," a
device for cleaning toilet bowls? Or that actress Lillian
Russell patented a dresser_trunk in 1912? The U.S. Patent
Office can vouch for their credentials. And, if you want
to tip your hat to them, and to the earners of nearly 4 mil-
lion other American patents since the birth of the Republic,
you can do so on February Ii, the second annual National
Inventors _ Day. It is coincidental with Thomas A. Edison's
birthday. Abraham Lincoln, long before he became president,
was issued a patent for inventing a device "to bouy vessels
over shoals." Mark Twain not only created memorable characters
like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin, but also came up with
three tangible inventions, including a "Self-Pasting Scrapbook,"
This was a collection of blank pages coated with gum or veneer.
SL-IV MC-2922/2
Time: 04:19 CDT, 84:09:19 GMT
2/7/74
The Ladies Home Journal has agreed to serialize Spiro T.

Agnew's first novel with the initial excerpt appearing in
the May issue, publishing industry informants reported.
There were indications that the magazine was paying more
than $100,000 for the serial rights to the book, although
it is not yet completed and there was no indication when
when succeeding installments are to appear. The first
excerpt, a sort of preview, is to be less than 5000 words
long, it was understood. Last month Random House turned down
Agnew's proposal for publishing a suspense novel. Robert L.
Bernstein, president of the publishing house said it was
not suitable for the Random House list of published books.
The House Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, with a solid
mandate from the House, is preparing to go after any evidence
it needs for its investigation of possible grounds for
impeaching President Nixon. The House, by a vote of 410 to
4 granted the committee broad subpoena powers. Although,
in Chairman Rodino's view the vote gives the committee
authority to subpoena Nixon, he told the House he would not
do so unless it proved absolutely necessary. Nixon has
promised to cooperate with the committee_ within limits.
Scientist Astronaut Karl G. Henize excaped injury yesterday
in a T-38 landing mishap at Bergstom Air Force Base. It
occurred at i0 a.m. central daylight time as Henize was landing
at Bergstrom after a flight from Ellington, where he departed
at 09:28 on an IFR Flight Plan. Further details are not
available at this time. A real tempest in a chili pot bubbled
up on the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday. Senator
John Tower, Rebulican Texas rose to take exception to
published remarks of Senator Barry M. Goldwater, suggest
who suggested a similarity between the Texas version of the
peppery dish and "leavings in a corral." "Wait a minute,"
said Goldwater from across the chamber. "Would the senator
use his microphone?" "If hers going to insult me, I want to
hear it." Tower then loudly proclaimed that comparing
Arizona chili with Texas chili was like "comparing Phyllis
Diller with Sophia Loren" and challenged Goldwater to a
cook_off. He offered to let his friend pick the time and
the place. He suggested that there be three impartial
judges to do the official tasting, "It will prove nobody
can cook chili like a Texan," Tower said triumphantly.
Goldwater quickly conceded having said that Texans "don't
know chili from leavings in a corral" and said if Tower
promised "not to bring that substance with him to make his
chili," he_ll be glad to accept the challenge. (Laughter)
"Besides," said Goldwater, "it will be a real experience
to teach a Texas something they don't know how to do."
And that's all of the news we're fit to read up this morning
and maybe a little more.
SL-IV MC-2922/3
Time: 04:19 CDT, 84:09:19 GMT
2/7/74
PLT Sounds like Barry's in rare form.

CC Yes, indeed.
PLT Was the Skylab chili made in Texas?
CC What does it taste llke?
PLT The O.K. Corral.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2923/I
TIME: 04:47 CDT, 84:09:47 GMT
2/7/74
CC Skylab, this is Houston, I minute to LOS.

Next station contact in 27 minutes through Carnarvon at 10:24.
Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control; Skylab's moved

out of range of the Ascension station. Next acquisition through
Carnarvon in 25-1/2 minutes. At 9 hours 58 minutes Greenwich
PAO This is Skylah Control at 10 hours 23 minutes
Greenwich mean time. Skylab coming up on acquisition through
Carnarvon and Honeysuckle.
and Honeysuckle Creek for 9 minutes. Out.
Next station contact in 15 minutes through Hawaii at 10:47.
Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control; Honeysuckle has

loss of signal. Next acquisition is through Hawaii in 11-1/2
minutes. At i0 hours 35 minutes Greenwich mean time, this
is Skylab Control.
PAO This is Skylah Control at 10 hours 46 minutes
Greenwich mean time. Hawaii is about to acquire Skylab for
an 8-minute pass.
CC Skylah, this is Houston through Hawaii
for about 8 minutes. If you all are about through with
postsleep activities I got a couple of items for you here.
CDR Roger, Bruce; go ahead.
CC Okay, first off there's a message in the
teleprinter concerning a configuration of the EVA hatch for
your departure at your option if you can squeeze it in. The
thought behind it was that if the future revisit happens to
be on shuttle program or some vehicle not equipped with Apollo
type docking interface, the easiest way into the workshop might
be through the EvA hatch as opposed to the MDA; so we've worked
up a little procedure there. There was a restraint over the
hatch retainer at launch, but this was removed on initial
activation by the first crew and it may he in a launch pen
hag or may he in the plenum hag down below, and you all haven't
worked with that so we figured the simplest thing to do would
he the procedure that's outlined which is safing it with some
safety wire. We have loaded into the command module computer
a state vector Greenwich mean time at PSM, and we've reselected
POO with the VDRB 37, so it's integrating right along. And
we're putting the REFSMATT mat in at the present time. And when
Jerry is - is free to copy or make a note I've got the stars
for his Pbl, 52 during the night period starting at 12:05.
Over.
SL-IV MC2923/2
TIME: 04:47 CDT, 84:09:47 GMT
2/7/74
CDR Okay, Bruce.

CC Okay, it's star 22 Regulus and star 26
Spica. And both of them are available for the entire night
period starting at 12:05. Over.
SPT Roger, Bruce, he copies. And that safety
wiring JOP is already done.
CC Oh, mighty fine. Thank yon. And the
stars are available this night period also. Just for reference
you got about 17 minutes left. Probably better to just stick
with it however feels comfortable to you.
CDR Okay.
CC And the REPSMAT mat load is in and verified.
Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston_ i minute to LOS.
Next station contact in 5 minutes through Goldstone at 10:59.
And as we progress on through the deactivation activity
today and tomorrow, we'd appreciate it very much if periodically,
that is every couple of hours, you could give us a status
report on how you're doing on a block-by-block basis with
respect to the time line, or an item-by-item basis as having
accomplished those blocks or those items so that we can check
them off down here and be with you and make sure nothing
falls down a crack. Over.
CDR Will do it, Bruce.
CC Roger . Out.
of range of the Hawaii Station. Goldstone will pick up the
space station in 3 minutes. We'll stand by for the upcoming
pass over the United States.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2924/I
Time: 05:56 CDT 84:10:56 GMT
217174
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Gold-

stone for 5-1/2
minutes; out.
CC Skylab, Houston. i minute to LOS. Next
station contact in 4 minutes through Bermuda at 11:08. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Merritt
Island and Bermuda for 10-1/2 minutes. We see the CMC
self jec - self-test complete and it's looking good to us,
and for your information we have commanded CMG number i
bearing heaters ON, warming the bearings up preparatory to
end-of-mission testing. Over.
CDR Roger, Bruce.
CDR Bruce, you ready for an E-memory dump?
CC Yes, we are, Jerry; go ahead.
CDR Okay.
CC Okay, Jer. We see E-memory dump complete
and we have nothing to upllnk to you at this time.
CDR Okay. I just went LOW BIT RATE.
CC Roger; thank you.
CC CDR, Houston.
CDR CDR; go.
CC Roger. The performance of the CMC self-
test wiped out EMP-51, and we will reload that for you;
however, we'd like to wait until after you do the P51/P52
sequence because the REFSMAT is currently residing in the
up buffers. So between now and completion of that and
reload, about an hour or an hour and a half from now, EMP-51,
which is the wide deadband, will not be available to you.
Over,
CDR Okay, Bruce. Thanks.
CC Roger.
LOS. Next station contact in 7 minutes through Ascension
at 11:26. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Bermuda has
loss of signal. Next station is Ascension in 5 minutes.
PAO This is Skylab Control at ii hours 24
minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab will be in acquisition
through the Ascension station in about a minute.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Ascension
for i0 minutes.
PLT Bruce, Skylab, PLT. Would you give us a
couple of ascending nodes, please, for setting the EREP
slider map?
CC Okay. We've got them right here for you.
You ready to copy?
PLT Affirmative.
CC Okay. 163.4 east at a time of 10:40, and 8
seconds Zulu. Ready for the next?
SL-IV MC-2924/2
Time: 05:56 CDT 84:10:56 GMT
2/7/74
PLT Roger.
CC 73.7 west at 02:12:58 Zulu.
PLT Roger.
CC And 167.7 east at 09:59:29.
PLT Thank you.
CC Are you interested primarily in U.S. or
world, cause it seems llke we got a pretty big gap between
the first and second ascending node that we gave you.
PLT No, we can go ahead and figure it out, Bruce.
That's fine.
CC Okay.
CC Skylah, this is Houston. i minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 24 minutes through Carnarvon
at 11:58 with a data/voice tape recorder dump at AOS. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Ascension has
lost signal with the space station. Next acquisition is
trough the Carnarvon station in 21-1/2 minutes. At ii hours
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2925/I
Time: 06:57 CDT, 84:11:57 GMT
2/7/74
PAO This is Skylab Control. ll hours 57 minutes

Carnarvon for 10-1/2 minutes.
for a little over 10 minutes with a data/voice tape recorder
dump here.
PLT Roger, Bruce.
LOS. Next station contact in 4 minutes through Guam. At
12:11. Out.
loss of signal. Guam acquires the space station in a minute
and a half.

for 10 minutes. Out.
CC Skylab, this is Houston with the daily

OCV adjust procedures.
CDR Say, again, Bruce.
CC Roger. We've got the daily tweak on
REG BUS 1 and 2, if somebody's around the airlock module.
We don't want to interrupt your work, though, Jerry.
CDR Roger, Bruce. I had to use the Denebola
instead of the Regulus on 51. Regulus is much too close
to the Moon. You can't even see it.
CC Okay.
PLT Okay, Bruce. What do you want on the
REG BUSES?
CC Okay. Both of them. REG BUS 1 and 2
counterclockwise, 15 degrees, 15 degrees. And the rationale
behind this is that with the CSM powered up now, we're losing
a little ground on keeping the airloek module amp hour
integrators peaked out, so we want to shift a little bit of the
load over to the ATM by doing this.
PLT Okay. They're adjusted. How about taking
a look at them?
CC Okay, Bill. That looks beautiful to
us and we've got 1 minute to LOS. Next station contact in
16-1/2 minutes through Goldstone at 12:38. Out.
PLT Roger.
PAO This is Skylab Con - Guam has loss of
signal. Next station is Goldstone in 14-1/2 minutes.
The 24-hour warmup of control moment gyro number 1 has
started. That's the gyro that failed early in the mission.
Heaters have been turned on and will be left on for 24 hours
and at ii hours 55 minutes tomorrow Greenwich mean time,
shortly after the crew nndocks the command module from the
space station, the ground will try to spin up that gyro and
see how it performs. Bearing temperatures on CMG number 1
were down around 7-1/2 degrees, while it was inoperative.
SL-IV MC-2925/I
Time: 06:57 CDT, 84:11:57 GMT
2/7/74
Heater's been on close to an hour and a half. Temperatures

are now up to about 22 degrees. Even as the Skylab astronauts
prepare for their return to Earth, one of the prime activities
of their 12-week flight continues to receive special attention.
Although, very little time was set aside formally for
observing, describing, photographing the Earth, the best
trained visual observers that were sent in space have taken
an estimated 1500 photographs of the Earth's surface with
the handheld cameras. While the more sophisticated camera
systems of the Earth resources experiment package were collect-
ing about 19,000 pictures of the Earth and electronic sensors
were recording Earth survey data on 19 miles of computer
tape, the handheld cameras were filling the gaps in man's
knowledge. Yesterday afternoon, Pilot Bill Pogue reported
making additional photographs of the ocean currents and
hugh plankton concentrations in the south Atlantic. Pogue
made about a dozen photographs of Ice islands and numerous
icebergs near South Georgia Island about a i000 miles east
of the southern tip of South America. The Skylah veteran
used a 35-milllmeter camera to photograph the ocean's
surface and two of the photographs were taken with a 300-millimeter
telephoto lens. The color pictures should show the extensive
concentrations of plankton believed associated with the current,
which flows past South Georgia Island. The Skylab astronauts
have provided oceanographers with photographs and tape-recorded
observations of many ocean currents in many remote areas of
the world. The south Atlantic has been a primary source of
data from Skylab. Ocean conditions there are poorly understood only
about 4 percent of the world's oceanographic monitoring
stations are located in the south Atlantic. The astronauts
are expected to continue taking pictures of sand dunes,
agricultural developments, cities, snow cover, geological
features and other subjects of interest to scientists here on
Earthp right up to the time they suit up for their return
flight.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2926/I
TIME: 07:26 CDT, 84:12:26 GMT
2/7/74
PAO - - logical features and other subjects

of interest to scientists here on Earth right up to the time
they suit up for their return flight. All three crew members
have made excellent use of the special lectures they were
given last fall as geologists, oceanographers, meteorologists
and other Earth scientists prepared them for their 12 weeks
circling the Earth. The astronauts will have 34-1/2 million
miles in orbit by the time they splash into the Pacific
tomorrow morning. The latest weather forecast for the recovery
area provided by the spaceflight meteorology group of the
National Weather Service, satisfactory weather conditions
are expected for the landing and recovery of Skylab-IV. The
landing zone is expected to have partly cloudy skies, rather
strong surface winds in that area will decrease substantially
today so that by landing time tomorrow morning winds are
expected to range between 15 and 18 knots from the northeast.
Seas will run between 5 and 7 feet, and the temperature at
landing time will be about 58 degrees. Skylab now 9 minutes
away from Goldstone. At 12 hours 28 minutes Greenwich mean
time, this is Skylab Cotnrol.
Greenwich mean time. Skylab approaching the pass over the
United States beginning at Goldstone, ending at Bermuda.
and Merritt Island for 17 minutes. Out.
CDR Roger, Bruce. Did you copy the torquing
angles?
CC Negative. You went over the hill before
he could get them. We're standing by.
CDR Okay the stars were 22 and 31. NOUN 05 was all
zips, NOUN 93 was minus 00061, minus 00002, and plus 00100.
Torquing time was 12:25:30:00.
CC Okay, we copy all of that. Thank you, Jer.
CC And Jerry, if this is a convenient spot for
you to yield the DSKY for a minute or so we will reload
EMP-51 now. Over.
CDR It's all yours.
CC Thank you.
CC And the DSKY's yours, Jerry, we're through.
CDR Roger; you guys sure load that faster than
I can.
CC Fastest singer in the west.
CC Skylab, this ,is Houston; 1-1/2 minutes to
LOS. Next station contact in 44 minutes through Carnarvon at
13:37. And for the CDR, the next time you get up in the vicinity
of the command module, we'd like you to zero the optics and
SL-IV MC2926/2
TIME: 07:26 CDT, 84:12:26 GMT
2/7/74
and then leave the switch in optic zero, please. Over.

CDR Oh, yeah, thank you.
CC The old zero optics game again.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Bermuda has loss
of signal. Next acquisition through Carnarvon in 40 minutes.
Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2927/I
Time: 08:36 CDT 84:13:36 GMT
2/7/74

35 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab approaching acqui-
sition through Carnarvon for 7 minutes.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Carnar-
von for 7 minutes. Out.
LOS. Next station contact in 8 minutes through Guam at
13:51. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Skylab's out
of range at Carnarvon. Guam acquisition in 5 minutes.
Skylab Commander Jerry Carr has powered up the guidance
and navigation system for the command and service module
while flight controllers on the ground are preparing the
command module's computer for the return to Earth tomorrow.
The crew continues shutting down the space station for the
last time. Astronauts were up at 4 a.m. today and it'll
be a short workday. Their bedtime is i p.m. They'll have
an 8-hour sleep period before they begin final preparations
late tonight for splashdown tomorrow. Hndocking scheduled
at 5:34 a.m. central daylight time tomorrow. Crew will fly
around the space station and take some parting photographs.
Splashdown scheduled at 10:17 a.m. central daylight time,
about 170 statute miles southwest of San Diego. Flight
controllers here in Houston will continue working after
splash. They'll test the space station systems before
allowing it to drift freely in orbit. Extensive testing
will keep the controllers busy until about 2 p.m. Saturday.
Skylab 3 minutes away from Guam.
for 6 minutes. Out.
CC And perhaps sometime during this pass
you'll give us a brief update on your progress this morn-
ing.
CDR Bruce, we're exactly on schedule. I'm
storing the FDF now and Bill is doing the fecal bundle
storage at this time.
CC Okay, great. That means Ed must be
doing the squeezer bag dump and removal.
CDR We're going to hold that off since it's
just a short thing and we're going to wait and do that first
thing in the morning.
CC Let us work on that one, Jer. I'm
hearing some groans in the control center here and seeing
some heads shaking back and forth. It may impact the water
system deactivation and things like that.
CDR Okay. The idea, though, is after the
last time we wash is when we would do it; so that this will
have to be before the deactivation of water systems.
SL-IV MC-2927/2
Time: 08:36 CDT 84:13:36 GMT
2/7/74
CC Jerry, the quick-look response here is

that if you don't do it now it's going to delay your going
to bed tonight. Water systems does get closed out before
you go to bed tonight, and we would earnestly suggest that
you go ahead and do it now on schedule and try to stick to
the time line that we've got worked out. You just won't
have time to work it in tomorrow. Over.
CDR Okay, Bruce.
CC Roger; thank you.
LOS. Next station contact in 18 minutes through Goldstone
at 14:14, and just for your background information, before
you deactivate the water system we do have directions in
here of moistening some towels that you can use for personal
hygiene and general cleanup on your hands, things like that,
after the water system's deactivated.
PLT Roger, Bruce.
of range of Guam now. Acquisition through Goldstone in
15 minutes. At 13 hours 59 minutes Greenwich mean time,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2928/I
Time: 09:13 CDT, 84:14:13 GMT
2/7/74

13 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab about to be acquired
through the Goldstone station.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Corpus
Chri through Goldstone, Corpus Christi and Merritt Island
Next station contact in i0 minutes through the Vanguard, at
sea, at 14:39 with a data/voice tape recorder dump at AOS.
Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Merritt Island
has loss of signal. Next acquisition through the Vanguard
tracking ship in 8 minutes. We have a revision of the end-of-
mission event time lines. For the most part, these are
changes in seconds. We'll give those to yon: Undocking i0 hours
34 minutes 7 seconds. These times are in Greenwich mean time.
End of flyaround, i0 hours 56 minutes 7 seconds; separation
maneuver with the service module reaction control system,
at ii hours no minutes 7 seconds; the service propulsion
system shaping maneuver, ii hours 32 minutes 54 seconds;
the retrofire burn, 14 hours 35 minutes 59 seconds; Entry
interface, 15 hours I minute 3 seconds; reach 05 g at 15 hours
3 minutes 30 seconds; begin blackout, 15 hours 3 minutes
51 seconds; end blackout, 15 hours 7 minutes 19 seconds;
drogue chute deploy, 15 hours ii minutes 28 seconds; main
chute deployment, 15 hours 12 minutes 15 seconds; and splash-
down, 15 hours 17 minutes 6 seconds.
38 minutes. Skylab is approaching acquisition through the
Vanguard.
Vanguard for i0 minutes with a data/voice tape recorder dump
here. For your information, next site Goldstone at 15:52
is the site for the evening status report. And next Vanguard
at 16:16, is the site for the med conference.
SPT Roger, Bruce.
Next station contact in i hour and 3 minutes through Goldstone
at 15:52 with the Evening Status Report. Out.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Skylab has
moved out of range of the Vanguard. Next acquisition is
Goldstone in i hour and 2 minutes. At 14 hours 49 minutes
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2929/I
Time: 10:52 CDT, 84:15:52 GMT
2/7/74
CC - this is Houston through Goldstone

for ii minutes, standing by to copy the Evening Status Report.
Over.
CC Stand by, I understand we've got a
keyhole coming up.
52 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab has just been acquired
at the Goldstone station.
-CC Skylab, this is Houston. Back to you
through Goldstone out of the keyhole, and standing by to copy
the Evening Status Report.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. Are you copying?
CDR Stand by.
CDR Okay, Bruce. Sleep: CDR, 65, 65 heavy;
SPT 8.5, 8.0 heavy, one-half light; PLT, 6.0, 6.0 heavy.
Volumes: 190, 150, 185. Water gun: 9035, 5222, 2216.
Body mass: 6.290, 6.291, 6.388; 6.375, 6.376, 6.374;
6.273, 6.273, 6.263. No exercise. The closeout volume:- -
CC Was deleted.
CDR Okay. Would you stand by for the water
gun closeout. That's in a different book.
CC Okay.
CDR Okay. Closeout water gun: 9050, 5222,
2219. Medication: CDR, chloral hydrate, tonight; SPT, Dalmane,
tonight; PLT, Seconal and Actifed, tonight. Clothing:
CDR, socks and shorts_ SPT, socks, shorts and shirt; PLT,
none. Food log: CDR, salt 2.5, food deviation, minus the
chicken and gravy, minus a coffee with sugar, water plus
12.0_ the SPT, salt 4.0, minus the chicken and gravy, plus
2 grape drinks, Apollo, plus 20.0 water; PLT, salt, zero,
deviations plus a chocolate bar, minus strawberries, water,
plus 8.0. Photo log we won't have for you. Flight Plan d's
none; shopping list, none; inoperable equipment, none;
unscheduled stowage, none.
CC Okay. We've been working the subject
of the 35-milllmeter camera return for you. And the situa-
tion is that over the last few weeks we've had a tough
time holding the line on return stowage. And since we've
had to turn down a lot of other people's requests to bring
back various and sundry items, and it appears that you can do the
Job with the Hasselblad, I guess that we'd like to suggest
that you not return the 35-mllllmeter camera. Over.
CDR Roger, Bruce.
CC And can you give me some feel on how
you're coming block-by-block basis through the activities
today. I guess, you got the caution/warnlng inhibit and the
SCS power up and the SPS/KCS out of the way. And that sort
of thing. Over.
SL-IV MC-2929/2
Time: 10:52 CDT, 84:15:52 GMT
2/7/74
CDR Everybody's right up to speed, right

exactly on their blocks.
CC And we've got the squeezer bag taken
care of?
CDR That's affirmative.
CC Okay. Sounds beautiful. Thank you, Jer.
CC And for your P52, coming up at 17:00,
Jerry, we'd like to suggest Spica and Arcturus; they're
stars 26 and 31. And our alternate would be Denebola, of
course, which you used earlier today, star 23.
CDR Roger.
PLT And Bruce, a quick question on page
1-53.
CC Go ahead, Bill.
PLT Roger. On 1-53 it says circuit breaker
in HSS, wardroom H20heater OPEN. I'd just like to verify
that's the configuration you want.
CC That's affirmative.
PLT Okay, then on page 1-55, that panel 700
H20 dump heater light on, verified?
CC Right. Is there a conflict there?
PLT I think turning that breaker OFF
turned that heater off.
CC We're _etting a negative on that. I'ii
go check, myself, but, for right now consider the configura-
tion correct, unless we call you back.
PLT Okay. Well, when I got the step on page 1-55,
the light was off. I went ba I remembered throwing that
breaker, so I went back over to put the breaker on and the
light came back on.
CC Are you sure you're pulling the right
breaker. The one for the water heater under the wardroom
table.
PLT All right. Stand by.
CC We - we suspect you may be pulling the
dump heaters wardroom water circuit breaker instead.
CC Yeah. The one you want to be pulling
is the fourth one in from the left, not under dump heaters.
PLT You're right. Thank you.
Next station contact in 13 minutes through the Vanguard, at
sea, at 16:16 for the private medical conference. Over.
SPT Roger.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2930/I
Time: 11:03 CDT 84:16:03 GMT
2/7/74
PAO This is Skylab Control. Had loss of

signal at Goldstone. The Vanguard tracking ship will acquire
Skylab in ii minutes. Change-of-shift briefing with Flight
Director Nell Hutchinson is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. central
daylight time in JSC news center briefing room. 12:15 p.m.
for the change-of-shift briefing with the flight director.
Control.
PAO This is Skylab Control at 16 hours 14
minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab is approaching acqui-
sition through the tracking ship Vanguard. The daily med-
ical conference is scheduled here at Vanguard. We'll bring
the line up, though, and stand by in case that conference
ends before Vanguard has loss of signal.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. 6-1/2 minutes
remaining in this Vanguard pass.
CDR Roger, Bruce, and I owe yon some in-
formation I forgot to give you during the evening status
report pass there. In the SPS RCS quiescent termination I
found system test meter number 8 Charlie read zero instead of
the 1.3 and 3.7 area and the PSM oxidizer manifold pressure
is running a little bit high. It's 210.
CC Okay; we copy that. We confirm the
oxidizer manifold pressure. We'll check the rest of it out.
And that 210 level is acceptable.
CDR Okay.
CC Skyiah, this is Houston a little over
1-1/2 minutes to LOS. Next station contact in 16 minutes
through Tananarive at 16:42. For the commander, 8 Charlie
is SPS oxidizer tank outboard temperature. The transducer
is known to have failed quite some time ago, so there's no
concern about that reading being low, and the four entry
pads that you need are on board now in the teleprinter;
P-30 maneuvers for separation, shape, retrofire and the
entry pad. Over.
CDR Okay; thank you, Bruce.
CC Roger, roger.
PAO This is Skylab Control. The Vanguard
has loss of signal. Tananarive will have acquisition in
14 minutes. Flight Director Nell Hutchinson has revised
the time of his change-of-shlft briefing to 12:30 p.m.
central daylight time. 12:30 p.m. for the flight director
chan_e-of-shift briefing today. At 16 hours 27 minutes
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2931/I
TIME: 11:40 CDT, 84:16:40 GMT
2/7/74

40 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylah approaching acqui-
sition through Tananarive.
for 9 minutes. For CD - -
CDR Roger, Bruce. On the LiOH canister
replacement canister number 24, the seal was damaged in the
- in the overwrap so I went to bear locker 125 and I've
replaced number 24 with 34.
CC Okay, we copy that. Thank you. And we
wonder if you'd take a minute to look over the three burn
pad and the entry pad that's in the teleprinter and let us
know if you got any questions because we've got the lower
trench entry team here and we need to release them so they
can go home and get some sleep to come back here in the
morning and support your entry activities. Over.
CDR Okay, I'll get to it in just a minute.
CDR Okay, Bruce, I have the pads, they're
readable and I won't be able to say too much more until I
get some time to sit down and transfer it into the book and
look at them a little bit, but they look okay so far.
CC Okay, next station is Hawaii in 39 minutes
at 17:26. I guess we'll plan on talking to you there.
CC Or, if you llke, we'll just go ahead
and let the entry team go on home and resume support in the
morning. Over.
CDR Okay, I think you can let them go. I
don't I doubt if there's any problem, and I'm sure if I
have a question somebody there can answer it.
CC Okay, we'll let them go.
CC Skylab, this is Houston; i minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 36-1/2 minutes through Hawaii
at 17:26. Out.
PAO This is Sky lab Control. Skylab has moved
out of Tananarive's range. The next station will be Hawaii
in 35 minutes. We have the mission surgeon's daily report
on crew health for mission day 84. It is quote, "Following
the final private medical conference of the Skylab missions
we are pleased to report that the crew is in good health
and sprits. They are working well ahead of their time llne
and are as cheerful as we have heard them at anytime in the
mission. They will take sleeping medication before retirin_
at approximately 18 hours Greenwich mean time, or i p.m.
central daylight time. No known medical complications are
apparent at this time." Signed Dr. Paul Buchanan for Dr.
Royce Hawkins. At 16 hours 52 minutes Greenwich mean time,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2932/I
TIME: 12:25 CDT, 84:17:25 GMT
2/7/74

25 minutes Greenwich mean time. Rawaii is about to acquire
the space station.
CC Good evening, Skylab, got you through
Hawaii for 6 minutes.
PLT Hi, Story, good evening.
CC Hi, Bill.
PLT Story, the water system deactive closeout
is complete, and PLT tasks are complete. I would like
to report one anomaly in the water systems during the
deactivation on page 1-59.
CC Go.
PLT On step where it says panel 782 dump
pressure indicate a less than 0.7, less than or equal to
0.7 psia. I was getting a fluctuatin_ reading and I rechecked
the purge fittings to make sure that I did have a good
vacuum, and I did, so I went ahead and proceeded with the
rest of the steps on page 1-59 and everything look good.
CC Okay, Bill.
CC And in the next 5 minutes sometime, we'd
like to get the NOUN 93's and the NOUN 05 from Jer.
CDR Roger, Story, we _ust started 26 and 31.
The NOUN 5 was all zips. NOUN 93, plus 180, minus 411, minus
160.
CC Okay, 26 and 31 all balls, plus 180,
minus 411, minus 160.
CDR Okay, and we torqued it at 17:02:00:00.
CC Thank you.
CC Skylah, we're about 45 seconds to LOS.
The next station the Vanguard in about 23 minutes at 17:54.
And we're planning on that being the last station before
we put you to bed.
PLT Rog, Story.
PAO This is Skylab Control; Hawaii has loss
of signal. The next acquisition, this will be the last station
that we will talk to the crew prior to their bedtime, is the
tracking ship Vanguard in 20 minutes.
PAO Nell Hutchinson has not yet left the
Control Center, he plans to do so very shortly. And the
chanEe-of-shift news conference should get underway within
the next 5 to i0 minutes. The new flight director is
Milton Windier, CAP COMM on this shift is astronaut Story
Musgrave. At 17 hours 34 minutes Greenwich mean time, this
is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2933/I
Time: 01:06 CDT, 84:18:06 GMT
2/7/74
PAO - - minutes in tape of the Vanguard pass

that was accumulated during the change-of-shlft briefing -
in the change-of-shift briefing. We'll play that for you
now.
CC Skylab, we're back with you through

the Vanguard for 9 minutes.
SPT Hello, Story.
CC Hi, Ed. How are you today?
SPT Doing real well, Story. Thanks.
CC Hey, the back course down here is just
beg_in_ you to come home. Just can't wait for you.
SPT You got all the rattle snakes and deer
cleared away?
CC No, everything's clear; it's dry. Just
waiting for your foot tracks.
SPT Sounds like I'm being set up again.
CC (Laughter) Funny you should think that.
SPT Hey, Story. How far are you goin_
these days? Did you cut back to 15 or are you still up
around 20?
CC Oh, the best, Itm doln_ at one time is
18. I'm averaging about 8.
SPT You spread the 8 and jog the 18.
CC I'm afraid it's all slow.
CC And, Skyla5, if you're lookin_ at it
we're commanding to the DSKY and we will be the next 8 hours
or so.
CDR Okay, Story. I hadn't gone up there
yet to make my last check and see that it was cleared.
CC Yeah. We're clearing her from down
here. Jer.
CC And while I've got you I can offer you
a wake-up time. 20 minutes early or 20 minutes late.
CDR Better make it 20 minutes early this
time.
CC Yeah. We agree with that. It'll be
Honeysuckle at about 01:40.
CDR Good enough.
SPT Say_ Story, we haven't seen the procedures
written anywhere, but the way we're planning on doing it,
is to take the bags out of the urine separators first thing
in the morning and put them in the black bags and take
them up in the command module and use them that way.
CC Okay. I'ii check that, Ed.
CC Skylab, we're a minute from LOS. The
next station is Tananarive in about 15 minutes at 18:18.
This is our last pass for the night. After Tananarive it'll
be 19:01. Good night.
SL-IV MC-2933/2
Time: 01:06 CDT, 84:18:00 GMT
2/7/74
CDR Good night, Story.

CC See you in the morning.
SPT Okay, Story. Good night.
CC We're bound to have a few sinking spells
down here just because you all are sleeping.
CDR Hang in there, Story.
SPT You've never fallen asleep on the Job
yet, Story. Don't make it a first.
CC We've got some photos for you when you
get back.
PAO This is Skylab Control. That completes
the tape of the Vanguard pass. We have said good night to
the crew. We will take the commentary llne down. Wake-up
planned for 8:40 p.m. today, central daylight time. Commentary
will resume at that time. At 18 hours i0 minutes Greenwich
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2934/I
Time: 20:33 CDT 85:01:33 GMT
2/7_74
PAO 1 hour 33 minutes Greenwich mean time,

this is Skylab Control. Good evening. Crew is about 7
minutes away from being awakened over Honeysuckle on their
last day in space, the last day of the Skylab mission. On
today's execute package we have a number of comments from
the people on Earth to the people on Skylab, a poem.
Skylab is history now, and mountains of data are to be
argued, and published, and argued, and published again. And
you who have given some of your lives, and had some of your
lives unwilling taken by her, are free to enjoy the Sun.
Welcome back to Earth, signed Houston. And then from the
medical folks here a comment. "A job well done from the
medical community and thanks for all the data. The analysis
will keep us busy for some time, we have 5.4 miles of - -"
(Music)
CC Good morning Skylab for the second time,
Got you through Honeysuckle for 5 minutes.
CDR Good morning Story.
CC How y'all doing this morning?
CDR Doing great, wetre ready to roll.
CC What kind of sleep did you get?
CDR Oh, I think ranging from not so good to
pretty good. I got 5 hours.
CC Okay, great.
CDR Bill got about 3.
CC Ed, Houston.
SPT Hello Story.
(Laughter)
CC Hello Ed. It's kind of a anticlimax
to what we played before. But regarding your question about
the handling of the - the urine bags, that's on page 2-50
and 2-65. What you do is you put the three of them in any
kind of a bag. It says disposal bag, you probably don)t
have any more. But you put them in any kind of bag) bring
them to the command module, and you hang all three of them
on the couches for use after separation and coming home.
SPT Thank you.
CC And we prefer you don't use the fecal
return contrainer.
SPT Okay.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2935/1
Time" 20:38 CDT 85:01:38 GMT
2/7/74
CC Skylab, we're a minute from LOS. The next

station is Bermuda in about 35 minutes, 02:17. And for
the maroon team, this is our last pass for your mission.
We've appreciated all the work that you've done. We thank
you very much for it. It's been great working with you. We
wish you a good trip home and we'll see you at Ellington
Sunday afternoon.
CDR Roger, Story. So long you guys. Take
care. So long, super Aggie.
SPT So long, maroons. Enjoyed working with you.
CC Okay, Ed, it's been great.
PLT See you all soon.
CC Rog, Bill.
PAO Loss of signal through Honeysuckle. As
we started to say earlier, the medical community had a
congratulatory note for the crew of Skylab. "A job well done
from the medical community and thanks for all the data. The
analyses will keep us busy for some time. We have 5.4 miles
of vectocardiogram strip chart from your mission, u Also
the Skylab-IV astronauts are candidates for the Guiness
Book of Records. Most food comsnmed in pounds: Commander
Carr consumed, 511 pounds; Science Pilot Ed Gibson, 436 pounds;
Pilot Bill Pogue, 558 pounds. Most water intake in gallons:
Commander Carr, 55.45 gallons; Ed Gibson, 60.54 gallons;
Bill Pogue, 73.36 gallons. Most urine output in gallons_
Commander Carr, 20.66_ Ed Gibson, 21.01; Bill Pogue_ 24.48,
Most feces is still to be determined according to the
flight surgeon here. I'm sure that would go in the Guiness
Book of Records anyway. One of the thin_s the crew will
be doing in their closing minutes or hours aboard the
space station_ they'll be reeonfiguring the EVA hatch in
the airlock module so that it can be opened from the outside.
As presently configured, there's sort of a hood latch that
prevents the EVA hatch from being opened more than a few
inches, the first time around, then you have to open it
from the inside. It catches and then you have to release
the catch and open it all the way. That's in case depres-
surization is incomplete, the door won't blow open. And
they're taking precautions so that it can be opened com-
pletely from the outside in the event at some future time
that anybody needs to get inside the space station without
docking. That would be true of Soyuz which doesn't have
a compatible docking mechanism. Landing zone weather is
experiencing partly cloudy skies, and rather strong surface
winds, 15 to 18 knots, and sea surface is 5 to 7 foot
waves. Temperature has _one down since yesterday, It's
SL IV MC-2935/2
Time 20_38 CDT 85:01:38 GMT
2/7/74
now about 58 degrees. Next acquisition will be 32 minutes

from now and that will be through Bermuda, coming back up
on stateside passes once again. One hour 45 minutes, this
is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2936/I
Time: 21:16 CDT 85:02;16 GMT
2/7_74
PAO 2 hours 16 minutes Greenwich mean time,

Space station now nearing acquisition through Bermuda. The
crew should be powering down the Apollo telescope mount
control and display panel at this point. Probably a dis-
appointment to Science Pilot Ed Gibson_ who has spent over
one-third of his total time in the workshop at the panel,
providing scientists here on Earth with the most data they
have ever received at one time on our Sun. We'll hold the
line up now for CAP C01_M Bruce McCandless.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Bermuda
for 7-1/2 minutes. For the CDR's information, we're doing
a CMC clock sync here. No action required on his part. And
the stars for the P52 at 04:00 Zulu are Spica/Arcturus, with
Denebola as an alternate, just like you've been using. Over.
CDR Thank you, Bruce.
CC And for use in preparation of your
travel vouchers, as you get around to them today. The mileage
from liftoff to splashdown should be 30,561,000. Over
CDR How much was that again, Bruce?
CC Roger. 30,561,000, The only problem
with claiming mileage is it's all government transportation,
CDR Yeah. Quarters and meals, too.
CC Right.
CC No charge for the view. And Ed, would
you verify that you're ready for us to verify ATM command
capability from the ground. It looks to us like you've
got the panel powered down. Over.
SPT I'll verify that verified, Bruce.
CC Roger. We copy.
CC And we got the 2.3 minutes' worth of
or the 3 minutes' worth of VTR time, Ed. We'll go ahead
and dump it here in sequence. ATM command checks are com-
pleted and they're GO.
SPT Roger.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. One minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 3-1/2 minutes through Canary
Islands with a data/voice tape recorder dump at handover
to Madrid a few seconds later. Out.
PAO Loss of signal through Bermuda. Next
acquisition less than 2 minutes from now. That'll be through
Madrid. Science Pilot Ed Gibson just not giving up. Before
he powered down the Apollo telescope mount control and
display panel he put 3 minutes of the Sun's extreme ultra-
violet images on the video recorder on board and that was
downlinked. A true scientist he was called by Bruce
McCandless. The ATM control and display panel is now
powered down. It can be controlled from the ground, but it
is essentially off. 30,561,000 miles the crew of Skylab-IV
SL IV MC-2936/2
Time: 21'16 CDT 85:02:16 GMT
2/7/74
has traveled, and at the current rate of government per diem,

if the Skylab had been a private vehicle rather than a govern-
ment furnished vehicle, each crewmember would receive $2,139,270
for their travel expense and deterioration of the vehicle.
However, since Skylab is owned by the _overnment, they've
saved themselves approximately $7,000,000. Hold the line
up now. Less than a minute away from reacquisition through
Madrid.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2937/I
Time" 21'27 CDT 85:02:27 GMT
2/7/74
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Canary

Island for - and Madrid for 9-1/2 minutes. We'll have a
data/voice tape recorder dump coming here in about a
minute.
CC CDR, this is Houston. Now coming to you
through Madrid. The pads that we sent up for entry separation
and the burns are all GO. CMC clock sync is in, and it's
now synchronized to phase elapse time PET, approximate time
PET is 07:54. SPS repress is scheduled for Carnarvon at
03 02 Zulu, I say again 03:02 Zulu. And the stars that I
gave you earlier Spica, Arcturus, alternate Denebola 26:31:23
are good all day long for all activities. Over.
CDR Very _ood, Bruce. Thank you.
CDR Houston, CDR.
CC Go ahead.
CDR Roger Bruce. I wonder is you'd teleprinter
us up a couple of copies of a couple of messages here. Number
8651 Alfa, 8650 Bravo, and 8506 Alfa.
CC Okay, that's 8651 Alfa, 8650 Bravo, and
8506 Alfa. They'll be up shortly.
CDR Thank you sir.
CC And, I understand youtll comply with
those messages.
CDR No question, Bruce. We've complied with
every message we've gotten. Don't want to break our string.
CC Skylab, this is Houston, 1 minute to
LOS, next station contact in 25-1/2 minutes through Carnarvon
at 03:02. And we'll be ready to watch your SPS repress
over Carnarvon.
CDR Roger.
Space station now out of range of Madrid, next acquisition
will be 24 minutes from now and that'll be over Carnarvon,
Australia. The command module computer clock is synced to
the mission control computer. That was accomplished over
Bermuda. This crew will be bring back 1,817 pounds worth of
film representing 75,000 frames of solar exposures, and
17,000 frames worth of Earth resources experiment package
data, and almost i00,000 feet of magnetic tape. And we already
mentioned that they've traveled over 30,000,000 miles on
their 84 day mission. Cumulative manned hours for the
Skylab program far exceeds any previous record in the space
program, over 12,000 Cumulative manned hours for all three
crews. Greenwich mean time 2 hours 39 minutes, this is
Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2938/I
Time: 22:01 CDT 85:03:01 GMT
2_7_74
PAO 3 hours i minute Greenwich mean time.

This is Skylab Control. Space station now nearing acquisition
for a pass over the subcontinent of Australia, go through
Carnarvon and Honeysuckle Creek, and coming back up through
MILA and Bermuda. I'ii hold the line up now for Bruce
McCandless.
and Honeysuckle Creek for 15-1/2 minutes. And we're ready
to support SPS repress, Jerry. Over.
CC Okay, Jerry, we're seeing the SPS pressures
coming up at this time.
CDR Roger.
CC Okay, Jerry. That's a good repress. You
can put i to AUTO and leave 2 in AUTO at this time.
CDR Okay. That's done.
CC Roger. Thank you.
CC Skylab, this is Houston, One minute to
LOS. Next station contact is 31-1/2 minutes through Corpus
Christi at 03:49. And for your information the messegers
messages you requested are on board.
SPT Okay. Thank you Bruce. We got the URC
in the command module and the ED31 IM$S container all tied down.
CC Beautiful. I understand all the trays
and stuff like that went in the URC.
SPT That's affirm. There were about three
or four decapitations in along the way, but they're all in
there.
CC Okay. Thank you.
PAO Loss of signal through Honeysuckle Creek.
Next acquisition will be through Texas, Corpus Christi,
going up through Merritt Island Launch Area and Bermuda.
That'll be 29 minutes from now. Ed Gibson reported that
the urine sample container completely stowed away in the
command module. They had some problems with that return
container yesterday and the day before. The drawers that
fit in it wouldn't be - wouldn't go in because of the problem
with freezing something in zero-g. The urine sample con-
tainers themselves, plastic bags, were freezing in a not
perfectly square shape. They were sticking out. Ed reported
they had three or four decapitations, although this has
happened in previous returns, and the urine stays frozen
for 30 hours in the container, which is more than ample
opportunity to get it on board the ship and back in a
refrigerated compartment. Also transferred was the medical
swab samples that Ed Gibson took 3 days ago of the bacteria
content of the inside of the workshop trying to find out
SL IV MC-2938/2
Time: 22_01 CDT 85:03:01 GMT
2/7/74
what kind of micro-organisms grow in space along with the

crewmembers. It's probably appropriate that with the end
of the Skylab program, the last couple of hours, that there
be somewhat of a swan song for Skylah. NASA Administrator
James Fletcher in January, was asked, "what are the benefits
of the Skylab program, and what did it cost," trying to
weigh the cost versus the benefit. According to Dr. Fletcher
the cost of the program, including the research and development
funding for Skylab, and the predecessor program, on it's
Apollo applications, and dating as far back as fiscal year
1966, was 2.6 billion dollars. However, from that, Dr. Fletcher
has indicated that the following results have more than out-
weighed that cost. A continuation of the U.S. leadership in
manned spaceflight, which was established in Apollo; the
proof of man's ability to live and work effectively in space
for long periods, up to 85 days, as proven by this current
crew_ a clear demonstration that man could perform valuable
services in Earth orbit, as observers, scientists, engineers
and repairmen, starting with the first crew as repairmen and
certainly proceeding through three crews as observers and
scientists" a great wealth of new scientific information
about the Sun and it's nuclear processes, information simply
not obtainable from ground based observations was obtained
through the three Skylab missions. Ed Gibson certainly
getting a hardy congratulations for his untiring efforts as
a scientist. Convincing new evidence of the value of Earth
observations from space by both men and automated equipment.
This includes the highly successful Earth resources technology
satallite ERTS i. Reinforcement of our ability to encourage
international cooperation in space. And accordln_ to Dr.
Fletcher our decision to proceed with Skylab was essential
to our being able to participate in the Apollo/Soyuz test
project, and nndoubtly strengthened Russian interest and
cooperating, and probably played a very important role in
stimulating European interest for the proposed spacelab
module, which will be launched on a shuttleeraft. And Skylab
has proved the evidence of the feasibility of manufacturing
new products of great value in a weightless environment. The
germanium crystal which was one magnitude greater than any
ever produced on Earth was manufactured in space. Three
hours and 23 minutes Greenwich mean time. Next acquisition
25 minutes from now through Corpus, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2939/I
Time: 22:48 CDT 85:03:48 GMT
2/7/74

this is Skylab Control. Space station now less than a
minute away from acquisition through Corpus Christi. This
pass will take it through Merritt Island Launch Area and
Bermuda. Even as the crew continues to deactivate the
workshop and activate the command and service module, solar
scientists are still getting the last ditch of data from the
Sun as the SO55A ultraviolet scanning camera is continuing
to receive data, that'll be on for about 6 more hours. And
that data is being telemetered to the ground. Also over
Honeysuckle the service propulsion system was repressurized
in the service module. They should be powering up the CSM
at this point using CSM batteries for power getting ready
to break the umbilical about 4 hours from now, excuse me,
about 2 hours from now they'll do that. Acquisition of
signal now.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Corpus
Christi, Merritt Island and Bermuda for 14-1/2 minutes.
And when you have them we're standing by for the P52
numbers. Okay, relay that, we see you in P52, we'll just
look over your shoulder. Hey, hold that a second, we'll
copy it off the DSKY. Okay, we've got the numbers,
stand by, And your GO for talking, Jerry.
CDR Okay.
CC CDR, this is Houston. The gyro drift
that we're seein_ from this P52 is completely compatible
with the previous one. We like it. We have a set of gyro
compensations in work. We'll uplink them to you later, just
leave the whole works in accept. Over.
CDR Okay_ Bruce. And I have one question
for you concerning the SOP thatls in the command module.
We still have a SOMA on it. Seems to me we don't want to
bring them back with us, do we?
CC Stand by_
CC Okay, Jerry, you're right as rain on that
one. In the presleep activities last night for Ed on page
ir73, we had him take the whole SOP SOMA assembly out of the
command module and stow it anywhere down in the experiment
compartment,
CDR Okay, thank you, Bruce.
CC Roger.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. i minute till
LOS, next station contact in 4-1/2 minutes through Madrid
at 04:07 with the data/voice tape recorder dump at AOS. And
we_l probably have a gyro drift compensation load coming
up over Madrid. Out.
SL-IV MC-2939/2
Time: 22:48 CDT 85:03:48 GMT
2/7/74
CDR Roger, Bruce.

PAO Loss of signal through Bermuda, next
acquisition 3 minutes from now through Madrid. Crew is
currently about 20 minutes ahead of themselves. They've
begun the environmental control system preparation inside
the CSM; that envolves activating water and waste systems,
radiators and the oxygen system itself. The last video tape
recorder dump of the mission was completed over Bermuda, that
was the 3 minutes of XUV television that Science Pilot Ed
Gibson just apparently couldn't resist putting on. We'll
hold the line up as we're 2-1/2 minutes away from
reacquisition.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Madrid
for 8 minutes with the data/voice tape recorder dump.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2940/I
Time: 23"06 CDT 85:04:06 GMT
2/7/74
CC for 8 minutes with a data/voice tape

recorder dump.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. Got about 40
seconds to LOS. Next station contact in 27 minutes through
Carnarvon at 04_42. And for the CDR, we need you to complete
the gyro drift compensation load for us by doing VERB 33 ENTER.
A PROCEED will not work. Do a VERB 33 ENTER for us, please.
Over.
CDR Will do it.
PAO Four hours 16 minutes Greenwich mean
time. Space station now out of range of Madrid. Next
acquisition will be 25 minutes from now, and that'll be
through Carnarvon with a brief drop, and then through
Honeysuckle again. The crew is apparently moving right
along 30 minutes ahead of themselves. Bill Pogue has
completed the molecular sieve closeout procedure, and that's
called for about 30 minutes from now, so - They seem to be
anxious to net back. Four hours 16 minutes, this is Skylab
Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2941/I
Time: 23:40 CDT, 85:04:40 GMT
2/7/74
PAO - 4 hours 40 minutes Greenwich mean time.

This is Skylab Control. We have an updated weather report
here. The NOAA National Weather Service Space Flight Meteoro-
logical Group indicates that the weather in the landing zone,
approximately 150 nautical miles southwest of San Diego or
170 statute miles, expected to have partly cloudy skies this
morning at 10:17. Surface winds from the north-northeast at
12 to 15 knots and seas from 3 to 5 feet. Temperature at
landing time should he near 58 degrees. Both the wind and
the sea surface level has dropped. It was 15 to 18 knots
and 5 to 7 foot seas. That includes the trough and the crest
of the wave by the way. Now about 10 seconds away from AOS
through Carnarvon. We'll hold the llne up for Spacecraft
Communicator Bruce McCandless.
for 6 minutes with two items for Bill.
PLT Go Bruce.
CC Okay. On page 2-49 of your Deact Checklist,
you do REG adjust POTS per stata and direction. I got the
directions for you.
PLT Okay. Go.
CC Okay. BUS i, 15 de_rees clockwise. That's
15 degrees clockwise. BUS 2, 75 degrees clockwise. That's
75 degrees clockwise. We're intentionally setting up an unbalance
here so that we can perform some after-your-departure testing.
Over.
PLT Roger. Understand. And as per checklist

page 243, would you verify command capability?
CC Okay. We'll do that and on telemetry, also,
there's one item here that has us a little bit puzzled. We
had a change to your checklist on page 2-33 which involved
turning the AM duct hands off and putting the cap in the supply
duct. And we don't see the duct's hands off. We're wondering
if you got that change entered properly.
PLT I have it entered hut I did not do it. I'll
go do it right now.
CC Okeydoke. Mighty fine.
CC And that was the final OCV adjust, you may
have gathered.
PLT Roger. Okay, Bruce. I adjusted BUS 2, the
maximum amount available. Better take a look at it.
CC Okay. We're discussing it now. I under-
stand it was less than 75 degrees available.
PLT That's affirmative. It was about - oh, I'd
say, 60 degrees.
CC Okay.
PLT Stand by Bruce. I had that thing set wrong
when I started.
SL-IV MC2941/2
Time: 23:40 CDT, 85:04:40 GMT
2/7/74
CC Okay.
PLT Okay. Take a look at that right there.
CC We'll take a look.
CC Okay, Bill. We'd like to get about 5
degrees more clockwise on REG 2 if you can get it for us and
we're i minute to LOS. Next station contact in 7 minutes
through Honeysuckle Creek. Over.
PLT Okay That's complete. See if you have
time to check it.
PLT Dump pan's off. The duct is capped.
CC Very good. Thank you.
CC Can you verify the two BUS TIE circuit
breakers on panel 201 are still CLOSED, please, Bill?
PLT Yes, the two REG TIES are still CLOSED.
CC Roger.
CC Okay. OCV settings look good. Thank you
very much.
PLT Roger.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2942/I
TIME: 23:50 CDT, 85:04:50 GMT
2/7/74
PAO Loss of signal through Carnarvon. About

3 minutes away from acquisition through Honeysuckle Creek.
Pilot Pogue was adjusting the airlock module voltage regulator
busses. Regulator 2 is now putting out over 60 amperes,
and regulator i is offscale low in the telemetry readout
about 2 amperes the imbalances for testing that they wish
to do aboard Skylab after the crew departs at 5:34 this
morning Houston time about 6 hours from now. We'll hold
the line up about 3 minutes away from reacquisition through
Honeysuckle Creek.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Honeysuckle
Creek. And l_ve got an item for the PLT here.
PLT Go, Bruce.
CC Right, on panel 200 the VHF transponder
circuit breaker should have been a verify in the close
position, but when we commanded it by telemetry we didn't
get the proper response. Would you verify it closed? It's
the third row down on panel 200 in the right hand side.
PLT Stand by.
CC And, for the CDR and the SPT. Would you
get a couple of quick words on how you're progressing through
the checklist?
SPT l_m just getting into the biomed sensors
and Jet will be right after me.
SPT Everything's complete up to OBS and suit
donning.
CC Okay, mighty fine.
PLT VHF transponder circuit breaker is down
closed ,
CC Understand it was down or is down?
PLT It was and it is.
CC Okay, thank you very much.
CC And, we've got about i0 seconds to LOS here.
Next station contact in 28 minutes through Corpus Christi
at 05:24.
PAO Loss of signal through Honeysuckle. Next
acquisition will be 27 minutes from now, that'll be through
Corpus for a Corpus, MILA, Bermuda pass. Crew is still
about 30 minutes ahead of themselves. They're getting ready
for the suit donning. Flight director asking the environmental
control officer here in Mission Control if there was anything
else that he wished the crew to do as pertains to the space
stations electrical system, and there was a negative. So
apparently all the power downing has been accomplished aboard
Skylab. 4 minutes and 57, excuse me, 4 hours and 57 minutes
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2943/I
Time: 00:23 CDT, 85:05:23 GMT
2/8/74

this is Skylab Control. Space station now approaching Corpus
Christi for a pass over Corpus, MILA and Bermuda. And a
brief dropout and continuing through Madrid. The crew
should be in the process of donning their pressure garments
right now. They were almost completely through with their
closeout activities in the workshop itself with exception
of the final closeout, which they'll do right before they
get in the Apollo for the last time, right before hatch closeout.
SO55A experiment still looking at the Sun. That will continue
through 07:00 Greenwich mean time, Now about i0 seconds
from acquisition, we'll hold the line up for astronaut
Bruce MeCandless.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through
Corpus Christi, Merritt Island and Bermuda for 16-1/2 minutes.
Over.
CC Or out.
CDR Houston, CDR°
CC Go ahead, Jerry.
CDR Okay, Bruce. For the stowage people,
I promised to let them know where this late film eight-hole
35_millimeter bag would be stowed. It will be in Alfa 4.
CC Okay. eight-holer in Alfa 4.
CC Are all eight holes full?
CDR Affirmative.
CC Okay. Thank you.
CC And, for Bill's information, the AM
command verification testing has been completed. And all
the checks are GO. Out.
LOS. Next station contact in 5 minutes through Madrid at
05:45. Out.
PAO Loss of signal through Bermuda. Reacqui-
sition less than 4 minutes now through Madrid. Continuing
our Swan Song for the Skylab program in more reasonable figures,
the total of Earth resources package return of all three
manned missions resulted in 1400 square feet of sIgOA multi-
spectral frames, 1018 square feet of SI90B Earth terrain
frames and over 45 miles of magnetic tape information from
the S191, 2, 3, and 4 instruments. Over 182 842 frames were
taken of the Sun and other stellar objects by all three
missions. Slightly more by the second crew than the third,
77,600 ATM film frames versus 75,000 for the third crew,
although the third crew had more manned hours at the console.
And the return weight of all three Apollo command modules is
roughly the same, just slightly under 2 tons for all
three of them. Total travel time around the Earth for all
three missions is over 70 million miles. Skylab II crew
11.5 million miles, Skylab III crew 24.5 million miles,
SL-IV MC-2943/2
Time: 00:23 CDT, 85:05:23 GMT
2/8/74
Skylab IV crew_ 30.5 million miles, just hard to imagine

having traveled even 1 million miles. We'll hold the line
up now for CAP COMM Bruce McCandless. CAP COMM Bob Crippen
will be coming on in about 2 hours.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Madrid
for 9 minutes. And just for background info we're taking PCG number 8
off llne again to continue the amp-hour meter catch up.
And for Bill, after you've done the lock compartment dump
valve uncap and EVA hatch handle unlock, we'd like to get a comment
from you on that. Out.
PLT Bruce, I was right in the middle of
something when you called. Would you say it again so I've
got the precise information?
CC Yeah. We certainly didn't want to interrupt
anything, But, you know, that message we sent you up the
other day about taking the cap off the lock compartment dump
valve and unlocking the airlock EVA hatch handle as your last
action_ last time you leave the lock compartment, we Just
wanted to verify that you're planning on getting to that in
sequence,
PLT Rog. Okay. We - We're aware of that
and we'll have that done.
CC Okay. Thank you.
CC Skylab_ this is Houston. i minute to
LOS. Next station contact in 14 minutes through Tananarive
at 06:08. Out.
CDR Roger_ Bruce. I'm on page 2-52 and I
Just tr_ed to verify gas flow into the suit return hoses
and the left_hand hose, I don_t seem to be able to get it.
I've tried turnin_ the other two off and cycling the suit
return valve. And still no luck.
CC Okay. We copy that.
CC Okay. We're going over the hill here.
We_ll probably have to get to you at Tananarive on that Jerry.
CDR Okay, Bruce.
CC Did you get the little write-in procedure
that says verify gas flow in the suit return hoses 3 red
if no flow isolate compressor against valve by putting other two
valves to off and momentarily close suit return valve.
PAO No indication whether Commander Carr
heard that or not. That's indicated in the closeout cheek-
list in the event that the environmental control system activa-
tion doesn't go according to plan. Plugging in all three suits
now in the command module. Continuing with more facts about
Skylab that you were afraid to ask. Over $150 million dollars
worth of computer hardware for the Skylab support program.
This is primarily in the form of two-system computers, IBM and Univac.
Currently ii Univac l108's are being used in a multiprocessor system
for incoming data. And seven system 360/75 systems, one of IBMts
SL-IV MC-2943/3
Time: 00:23 CDT, 85:05:23 GMT
218174
most sophisticated. Three of those IBM 360/75 systems

are here in the Mission Control in the real time computer
complex. Aboard Skylab_ are two IBM system, 4 PI computers.
Those are redundant backup computers and those are the
workshop main computers.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2944/I
Time: 00:55 CDT, 85:05:55 GMT
2/8/74
PAO - - 75 systems are here in Mission Control

in the real-time computer complex. Aboard Skylab are two
IBM system 4-PI computers. Those are redundant backup computers
and those are the workshop manned computers. Next acquisition
will be ii minutes from now and that'll be through Honeysuckle
Creek. Excuse me, that'll be through Tananarive. 5 hours
56 minutes, this is Skylab Control.
PAO 6 hours and 6 minutes Greenwich mean time.
Space station now nearing acquisition through Tananarive.
Command tracking display here in Mission Control now shows
the workshop and the Apollo module. In about 2 hours from
now, all our timelines will chan_e from Greenwich mean time
to phase elapsed time. PET is 11:31 at this point. We'll
keep you informed of phase elapsed time.
for about 6 minutes. For the commander.
CDR Go ahead.
CC Yes, Jerry. On that shoot return flow
hose, what we think you have to do is close the suit circuit
return valve and then plug up with your hands or something
llke that the center and right return hoses in order to
develop the maximum suction across the left hand hose and
have the left hand flow valve apportioned (?) full flow.
CDR Okay. IIii try that. Last time, I Just
turned the other two valves off,
CC Yes. Without the suit interconnects, in and
we assume you don't have them because they weren't launched
with you, closing off the valves is in the supply side of
the line and it doesn't affect the suction or the suction
check valve.
CC Okay, Jerry. We got about i minute to
LOS here at Tananarive. 19 minutes to Honeysuckle Creek.
If that hasn't helped the problem, two more things you can
do is brin_ on a second suit compresser so you got two of
them running at once. And another thing you might try is
takin_ the left suit hose, bring it up to your mouth and seeing
if you can develop enough pressure by blowing into the hose
to unseat the check valve down there or to otherwise clear things
up. Over.
CDR Okay, Bruce. Thanks.
CC Any luck yet?
CDR Not yet.
CC Okay. We'll talk to you over Honeysuckle
at 06:32.
CDR Okay.
CC We're still hearing you if you're trylnK to
transmit.
CDR Roger, We got it_ Bruce with two compressors.
SL-IV MC2944/2
Time: 00:55 CDT, 85:05:55 GMT
2/8/74
CC Beautiful. Thank you.

PAO Loss of signal through Tananarive. About
5 hours and 40 minutes from now, control moment gyro number i
will be fired off in a test to see if that CMG will work again.
The heaters have been on now for about 18 hours. The temperature
on the two bearings is slowly moving up to the nominal 70.
Should the control moment gyros experience undue current when
they fire it up, they will shut it down. That's 2.5 amperes if
the cage motors on that gyro draw more than 2.5 amperes, they'll
shut the test down. If however, it draws less than 2.5, which
is almost 2-1/2 times its nominal ampere ratin_, then they'll
keep it going to see if they can control in solar inertial
attitude with CMG i, 2, and 3. Guidance Officer here in
Mission Control is pretty optimistic that the CMG will fire
up although there is no apparent reason for him to be optimistic.
Next acquisition will be 14 minutes from nowand that'll be
through Honeysuckle. 6 min - 6 hours and 16 minutes Greenwich
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2945/I
TIME: 01:30 CDT, 85:06:30 GMT
2/8/74

Space station now nearing acquisition through Honeysuckle
Creek, Australia. We'll hold the line up for this pass.
CC Skylab, this is Houston through Honeysuckle
Creek for about a minute and a half. Out.
SPT Roger, Bruce. We're just getting the
probe in now.
CC Okay, copy probe installation.
Next station contact in 27-1/2 minutes through Goldstone
at 12:24 PET.
CC And from us down here on the ground, the
workshop configuration looks great; closeout is beautiful.
SPT Thank you, Bruce. Thank you.
Next acquisition will be 25 minutes from now, that'll be
through Goldstone, California. Although the crew is about
i0 minutes behind their Flight Plan the closeout is complete.
They are in the command module now, they were in the process
of installing a probe. Coming up is a tunnel eloseout, suit
check, and pressure garment assembly integrity examination,
tunnel hatch installation hatch integrity check, and undocking
preparatfon panel configuration. 6 hours and 35 minutes,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2946/I
Time: 01:59 CDT, 85:06:59 GMT
2/8/74
PAO 6 hours and 58 minutes Greenwich mean

time. The space station now nearing acquisition through
Goldstone for a combined four-way stateside pass. According
to the Flight Plan, the crew should be checking their
pressure garment assemblies, their space suits, for environ-
mental integrity. However, they've been running i0 minutes
behind schedule for the last hour, so we're not sure whether
that's where they are. We'll hold the line up now for what's
expected to he Bruce McCandless's last callup, as Neil
Hutchinson's team trades over to Phil Shaffer's team with
CAP COMN Bob Crippen.
CC Skylab, this Houston through Goldstone,
Corpus Christi and Merritt Island for Ii minutes 20 seconds
with the, for what it's worth, the last data/voice tape recorder
dump, the last manned momentum dump and coming up shortly -
shortly the last manned momentum dump inhibit. Over.
CDR Rog, Bruce.
CC And we ha - -
PLT (Garble) check right now, Bruce.
CC No response required. We have a
PIPA bias update coming up to you.
PLT How do you read, Bruce?
CC Loud and clear.
PLT Okay.
CC PIPA bias is loaded. CMC is yours.
SPT Roger.
CC Skylab, this is Houston. i minute
to LOS. Next station contact in 1-1/2 minutes through
Bermuda at 12:36 PET and speaking on behalf of the silver
team, I'd just llke to say that we've enjoyed very much
working with you over the period of the last three months
here. We wish you good luck in your reentry and future
endeavors, And we'll he seeing you when you get back to
Houston here on Sunday.
CC Wish you a fair wind and a following
sea. Out.
CC Good morning, Skylab. We're AOS through
Bermuda for 6 minutes. The party's over, time to quit the
fun and come home and go to work.
CDR Hello, Cripper.
CC How's it go?
CDR We're in tunnel vent.
CC Roger.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're i minute from
LOS. Next station contact in 5 minutes through Madrid at
12:46 PET. All my future reference to time will be in PET.
CDR Roger, Crip.
SL-IV MC-2946/2
Time: 01:59 CDT, 85:06:59 GMT
2/8/74
PAO Short loss of signal between Bermuda

and Canary Island. All three crewmembers are now inside
the command module, and the command module is using its
own air supply, its own electrical system and they're in the
process now of checking hatch integrity. Hold the llne
up for this brief LOS, now about 3 minutes away from
reacquisition.
PAO Now about i minute from reacquisition
through Canary Island. Indications here, are that the
Secondary coolant loop reservoir, the area where the
coolanol for cooling liquid for the coolant loop, that
coolant reservoir is low. If the crew had intended on
staying in the workshop any longer, they would probably have to
reservice that secondary coolant loop. Apparently the
manufacturer is dead right about the guarantee on the work-
shop. 8 months is over and it's starting to deteriorate.
Hold the llne up now for CAP COMM Bob Crippen.
CC Skylab, Houston. AOS through Madrid.
We have you for 9 minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC And, Skylab, Houston, if you've got
a minute, can you tell us if the tunnel vented on down okay?
CDR Yes, the tunnel's looking good.
We're holding it steady now and checking it. It's holding
at 3.1 and got about another minute to go.
CC Fine and dandy. Thank you.
CC And we have a keyhole coming up
shortly. I'ii call you out of it.
CDR Roger.
CC Okay. We're out of keyhole, back
with you again. Still about 7 more minutes in this pass.
CDR Okay.
CDR Okay, Crip. It held real well at
3.1 and we_ve got it back in vent again.
CC Okay. Thank you for the update, Jer.
CC CDR, Houston. You got a moment, Jet?
CDR Roger, Crip. Go.
CC Okay. We're not seeing any indication
here that the secondary loop prep was performed back on
page 2-52. You might check that and if you get a chance
to go ahead and do it.
CDR Okay, Crip. That didn't get done because
I got distracted by that suit circuit problem. I'ii get it.
CC Roger. Thank you, Jer.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2947/I
Time: 02:30 CDT, 85:07:30 GMT
2/8/74
CC Skylab, Houston. We are 1 minute from LOS.

Next station contact is through Tananarive and that's goin_
to be at 13:06.
CDR Roger Crip.
This is Skylab Control. Space station now out of range of
Madrid. Next acquisition will be 6 minutes from now. That'll
be through Tananarive. 7 hours 35 minutes Greenwich mean
time.
13 hours 5 minutes phased elapse time. Space station is now
nearing acquisition through the voice relay station at Tana-
narive. We have an estimated time for hatch closing as the
workshop with the command module attached was out of range
of a trackin K station at the time. The estimated time is
11:50 phase elapse time, 06:20 Greenwich mean time, and 1:20
central daylight time. Acquisition now about 20 seconds
away. We'll hold the line up for Bob Crippen.
CC Skylab, Houston. Back with you once
more through Tananarive for about 7 minutes.
CDR Roger, Crlp. The tunnel depress is complete
now. We're faked out on the meters and we've doffed the
helmets and gloves.
CC Copy.
CC CDR, Houston. Jerry, had a chance to get
to your EMS delta-V test yet, null bias check?
CDR Yes, sir. Stand by a second and I'ii
give you the results.
CC Okeydoke.
CDR Okay, Crip. On the delta-V test, it
counted down to minus 21.4 and on the null bias, we went down
to 98.0 in a minute and 40 seconds.
CC Okay. Copied delta-V a minus 21.4 and
bias was 98.0 in 40 seconds.
CC i plus 40, rather.
CC CDR, Houston. Jer, we assume that you
did start at minus i00 and ended up with a minus 98.0 for the check-
list on that bias. Is that correct?
CDR Yeah, that's right, Crip.
CC Okay. Thank you.
CDR That seems to me that differs from what
we did last time. Didn't we get a little different value
before?
CC That's - according to GNC we got the same value.

Yeah, we started it at plus i00 before. Went to 102.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're about a minute
and a half from LOS. We'll have you again in 18 minutes at
Honeysuckle at 13:31, 13:31.
SL-IV MC2947/2
Time: 02:30 CDT, 85:07:30 GMT
2/8/74
CDR Roger.
Next acquisition will be at 08:07 Greenwich mean time. That'll
be through Honeysuckle, 16 minutes from now. There's a dozen
red roses here in Mission Control from a long-time admirer of
the space program, former resident in Montreal, Canada, now
resident of Pennsylvania, Miss Cindy Diane. I'ii read the
card that she's enclosed with the bouquet. "This Betsy Ross
bouquet is for my country's flag. Affirmative, the greatest
in the World. A tribute for the record mission of Skylab III.
Truly, the many benefits of the Skylab program are too numerous
to mention here but are increasingly evident in our daily lives.
All NASA personnel involved can be truly proud of their ac-
complishments no matter what the assignment intended. Yes,
this mission history will also record our astronauts spent
three of our holidays in space. Christmas being greatest for
obvious reasons. God bless our country and our fla_ from
one young lady who thanks our Heavenly Father every day that
I am an American." That from Miss Cindy Diane with all her
fondest love from Pennsylvania. 7 hours 52 minutes. Next
acquisition through Honeysuckle, 15 minutes from now. This
is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2948/I
TIME: 03:06 CDT, 85:08:06 GMT
2/8/74

Skylab Control. Space station is now nearln_ acquisition
through Honeysuckle. They'll be checking the four reaction
control system quad jets on the service module during this
pass. They're scheduled for a hot fire check of those
engines over Hawaii. Phase elapsed time is 13 hours 30 minutes.
CC Skylab, Houston; hack with you through
Honeysuckle 9 minutes.
CDR Roger_ Crip. We're ready to start the
RCS hot fire.
CC Okay, Jer. If you don't mind, we'd like to
wait till Hawaii. We've got all of our recorders configured
to cover it there.
CDR Okay, fine.
CC Okay, and if you can give us ACCEPT, we
see youtre in POO, we're going to go ahead and give you a
state vector uplink.
CDR Okay, you've got it.
CC Thank you, sir. Incidentally, Jer, on
- in doing that hot fire over Hawaii there might want to go
ahead and try and get your P52 out - out of the road as soon
as you got sunset, which is going to be around 13:43. Then
we can get the hot fire and give you a little hit more time to
get out of your suits.
CC And we do not have any don't have any
update to your pads.
CDR Okay, we're spring loaded.
CC Skylab, Houston. Are you still in the
process of doing the undock prep panel configuration? We've noted
that we haven't seen the VHF come on yet.
CDR Okay, we'll turn it on.
CC Okay, we were just asking - it to get a
status on where you were there, whether you'd got through the
prep or the undock prep panel.
CDR Yes, we finished that.
CC Okeydoke.
CC CDR, Houston. Jer, just to to make us feel
more comfortable here, we would like to verify that we did get
through the undock prep panel configuration 53 through page
5_9.
CC Of the CSM system.
CDR That's affirmative.
CC Okay, fine.
CDR Yes, we did.
SPT Say, Crip, how's the VHF look to you now?
CC We'll check it for you, Ed.
SL-IV MC2948/2
TIME: 03:06 CDT, 85:08:06 GMT
2/8/74
CC Okay, and we've got the state vector in

now. You can go ahead and go back to block.
CDR Okay.
CC Looks like a good day for you guys to
come home. People out on the New Orleans are sittin_ there
waiting for you, and you got fairly calm seas today.
CDR Good show. Glad to hear that.
CC And the VHF is okay now. That looks good.
CDR Roger. We Just missed it.
CC At least we got a comment out of Ed there.
I was afraid he'd gone back to sleep.
CDR He's trying to get his clothes off so he
can sleep more comfortably.
CC Ah, so; very good.
CC Okay, we're i minute from LOS. See you
again in 11-i/2 minutes at Hawaii, 13:51, and we'll stand by
to do the RCS hot fire there.
CDR Okay, Crip.
The command module computer was reprogrammed over this pass.
I'm started over at zero again. Now about 6 hours and 29
minutes from the deorbit burn, that's at phase elapsed time
20:00 even. Wearing their space suits, the crew members moved
into the small Apollo command ship and closed the docking
hatch prior to 1:30 a.m. slightly ahead of schedule. After
checking the return craft systems and test firing its small
maneuvering engines, which they will do over Hawaii, the
astronauts will make final adjustments to the navigation
computer and prepare for undocking. At 5:34 a.m. central
daylight time, the command ship will slowly pull away from
the orbiting laboratory after flying around and photographing
the place they've called home for 84 days, they'll slow down
by a few miles an hour falling below the space station and
sliding slightly in front of it. Firing the main engine of
their Apollo spacecraft at 6:33 a.m., the astronauts will go
into an egg shaped orbit to prepare for reentry. The service
propulsion engine will be fired again at 9:36 a.m. as the
astronauts pass 400 miles north of Singapore. By slowing about
125 miles an hour, the crew will bring their space ship carrying
more than 1700 pounds of scientific data into the atmosphere
over the Pacific. Splashdown is scheduled for 10:17 a.m.
Houston time, 170 miles southwest of San Diego. Weather conditions
in the area continue to improve. Winds are now 15 miles an
hour dropping to 12 from the north-northeast, partly cloudly
skies 3_ to 5_foot seas. U.S.S. New Orleans is about 3 hours
ago started to steam towards the prime recovery spot. Next
SL-IV MC2948/3
TIME: 03:06 CDT, 85:08:06 GMT
2_8_74
acquisition will be 6 minutes from now. That'll be through

Hawaii and we expect the hot fire RCS thruster cheek over
Hawaii. 8 hours 19 minutes Greenwich mean time, 13 hours
43 minutes phase elapsed time, this is Skyla5 Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2949/I
Time: 03:26 CDT, 85:08:26 GMT
2/8/74

Space station now nearing acquisition over Hawaii. Re-
action control system hot fire check will occur over Hawaii.
Thatts a check of all four of the service module propulsion
units quads A through D. That will enable ground observers
to determine whether or not there's anything wrong with
the propulsion system. Hold the llne up now for Bob Crippen.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're with you through
Hawaii for 9-1/2 minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip. P52's completed. We have
started 22 and 24. And NOUN 05's were all zips. NOUN 93's
minus, all zips 4. Y, plus, all zips Z, minus, all zips i,
gyro torque time was 13:48:20:00.
CC Okeydoke. Very good.
CDR Got a pretty nice PIPA bias in
there.
CC Roger.
CC Okay. We're getting the data all settled
down here and when we have it so - inform you so we can
go ahead and do the RCS hot fire check.
CDR Okay.
CC Okay. We're ready for it when you are,
Jer.
CDR Okay. It's in work.
CDR Okay. Here comes the plus pitch.
CC Okay. Standing by for it.
CC That looks good. Go ahead and give
us minus pitch now.
CDR Okay.
CC Okay. That one looks good. Plus your
on now, please, Jer.
CDR Roger.
CC Minus showing now, please.
CDR Roger.
CC And CDR, Houston. The hot fire is GO all
the way 'round, It looks real good.
CDR Very good. Thank you.
CC CDR, Houston. Jer, can you tell us
if your F deact select switch is now 1/2?
CDR That's affirmative. 1/2. I'm just
getting ready to do a GDC align.
CC Roger.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're 1 minute
from LOS. Next station contact in 3-1/2 minutes through
Goldstone. And CDR, Houston. If you manage to get out of
your suit by there, there are a couple of items I'd llke to
visit with you at stateside.
CDR Okay. What time will we be there?
$L-IV MC-2949/2
Time: 03:26 CDT, 85:08:26 GMT
218174
CC Oh, it's only about 3 more minutes.

But that's no big problem. We can get it later if - whenever
you get out and get comfortable.
CDR Okay.
PAO Loss of signal through Hawaii. Reacqui-
sition through Goldstone, California less than 2 minutes
from now. Reaction control systems aboard the service module
working perfectly. All four of those quads were fired
over Hawaii. Guidance officer here is very pleased - flight
controller very pleased too. That means after 3 months of
inactivity the CSM is still working perfectly. We'll hold
the line up through Goldstone.
CC Skyiab, Houston. AOS Goldstone 7 minutes.
And we're getting ready to command the vehicle to TACS only
here. So you might see it drift around a little bit. And
we'll also be putting in the indock gains.
CDR Okay. And Itm ready to copy whatever
you've got to say, there.
CC Okay. I guess, just to cover ourselves
one item we were thinking about was the contingency case
in case the capture latches fail to disengage in undoeking.
What we were going to recommend is that we go ahead and
just get off by doing a docking ring step. And if you
see no problem with that, I'Ii tell you how we recommend
slipping that into your procedures.
CC Okay. You want to do a docking ring step
if we don't get off the capture latches.
CC That's affirm.
CDR Okay, Go a_ead.
CC Okay. The backup procedure that's in
your CSM systems checklist on page 2-13.
CDR Okay. Page 2_13.
CC Okay. What we_d like you to do is to go
ahead and follow that, except after the little start box
if no probe retract portion.
CDR I'ii tell you what. Let me get that
checklist (garble)
CC Oh, Okay. Yes_ I would llke for you
to have that.
CDR Okay.
CDR Okay. Go ahead.
CC Okay. One item before you start writing
there. We will be over a site when you're - when you're
undocklng, So what we would like you to do is, before you
get _nto this sequence we will go through with a quick logic
sequence check. And we_ll do that one verbally. But if we
go into here, when you go through the retract probe portion,
you_ll get down to the little start box. After that after
the l_ttle start box if there's no retract, we want to have you do
SL-IV MC-2949/3
Time: 03:26 CDT, 85:08:26 GMT
2/8/74
panel 2 docking ring step 2 on up. And then go ahead and

complete that procedure up to, but not including the command
module MDA tunnel pressure integrity check.
CDR Okay. Panel 2, dock ring step 2 on
up. And that's right after if no retract.
CC Yes, sir.
CC All, basically, it's doin_ Jer is that
we would go ahead and arm the busses and go ahead and
retract the probe to get you back in so we won't be just
hanging there on the end of it when you separate off the thing
and then jettison up the docking ring and then just
clean up some switches.
CDR Okay.
CC Okay. Another item, just as a matter
of information. Through the shaping burn and through - for the
retroburn, retrofire through 0.5 gs, your horizon will be dark.
So there shouldn't be any problem with confusion of the ter-
minator at all. The terminator will not be in view in any of it.
CDR Okay. Good. We've got a nice Moon,
which helps find horizon, too.
CC Very good.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2950/I
Time: 03:43 CDT, 85:08:43 GMT
2/8/74
CC And -
CDR That's good for night (garble) too.
CC Roger that. I've done forgotten how to
do that.
CC One other item here is - is PLT busy right

now? I was going to put one -
PLT Okay Crip.
CC Okay. We're going to recommend - normally,
I think we have you have the DC indicator switch in BAT C
for reentry. We're going to recommend due to the circuit breaker
problem we had previously that we monitor BAT BUS A if - if
you concur with that.
PLT I concur.
CC Okay. If - if you've got the entry
checklist handy, it's on page E4-9 of the - and that is, of
course, the updated pages that we - section that we're working
with there.
PLT Stand by i.
PLT Okay. I have the entry book open to 4-9.
CC Okay. On the rlght-hand side, down at the
bottom where it has the seperation checklist, the first line
item there is DC indication BAT C and that's where we recommend
that you go ahead and select the BAT BUS A position.
PLT Okay. That's complete.
CC Okay. Very good and this is just a verbal
here that we're pretty tight on DSC time and we'd just like you
to operate the DSC as close as possible to the checklist for
entry.
PLT Okay.
CC And that's really about all the items I
had to chat with you about at this time. We're about 30
seconds from LOS and we'll have you again in 4 minutes through
Bermuda at 14:14.
CDR Okay. I think we'll get this house
cleaned up a little bit with our suits off and have a bite to
eat.
CC Sounds good.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're AOS through
Bermuda for 7 minutes.
PLT Roger, Crip.
CC And I copy that Jet's busy getting out
of his suit now.
PLT That's affirm.
CC Okeydoke.
CC Skylab, Houston. Is anybody in a
position to take a look at ball i right now. We're interested
to see if the attitude error needles are pegged.
SL-IV MC2950/2
Time: 03:43 CDT, 85:08:43 GMT
218174
CC We're seeing -
PLT Stand by i.
CC We're seeing big attitude errors down
here and that's what we're asking for.
PLT Yes, Crip. We do have large errors.
CC Okay, Bill. Can you check there over on
panel - panel i if you could see it whether the FDA i SELECT
in 1/2 and SOURCE is CMC?
PLT Stand by i.
PLT That's affirmative. We are.
CC And ATT SET switch is in GDC.
PLT Stand by.
PLT Negative. Stand by I, Crip.
CC Okeydoke.
PLT It's in CMC.
CC No, I mean ATT SET switch the one Just to
the right of it there, is it in GDC?
PLT Okay. I'm having to relay all that.
Stand by i.
CC Sorry about that.
PLT It's in GDC, Crip.
CC Okeydoke. We copy. Let us think about
it for a minute.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are about i minute
from LOS. Then we'll have you again in a couple of minutes
through Canary at 14:24. And no need to acknowledge it right
now but one other item you might check on (garble) the large
errors are pe_ed at attitude error needle, is on panel 7 to
insure that the FDAI/GPI POWER switch is in BOTH.
PLT Okay.
PLT Okay, Crip. That's verified.
CC Copy. Verified.
minutes Greenwich mean time. Bermuda's had loss of signal.
The Canary Island station will pick up the space station in
about 15 seconds.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2951/I
TIME: 03:59 CDT, 85:08:59 GMT
2/8/74
CC Skylab, Houston; we are AOS once more.

We got you for about 15 minutes through Canary.
PLT Roger, Crip.
CC Bill, can I just clarify one thing. We
would assume that from what we've seen right now that the
err needles on ball I should be pegged versus just large. Is that
what you were telling us while ago?
PLT They are pegged; that's correct.
CC Okay, fine.
CC Skylab, Houston; just something to keep
you busy while you're trying to get out of your suits and
getting ready to eat. To check out those err needles we
would recommend in your mal book to go through GNC number 2
which is on page 1-5.
PLT GNC number 2, i-5.
CC Ro_.
CC Skylab, Houston; as a matter of information
we have no data at this time and it's a ground problem only.
CC Skylab, Houston; as a matter of information
only, we do not have any data on the ground here, it's a
problem we got here at the ground other than the spacecraft.
PLT Roger, Crip.
CC Skylah, Houston; we are i minute from LOS.
Next station contact is going to he Carnarvon at 15:07, 15:07.
CC 30 minutes away.
PLT Roger, 15:07.
PAO This is Skylah Control. The Ascension
station has loss of signal. Next acquisition through Carnarvon
at 9 hours 42 minutes Greenwich mean time about 26 minutes
from now. The mission operations computer is down at the
moment and no telemetry was processed durin_ this last pass.
And the displays here in the Control Center are inoperable
at the moment while the computer's down. Expect to have that
computer back in operation in a couple of minutes. At 9 hours
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2952/I
Time: 04:40 CDT, 85:09:40 GMT
2/8/74

40 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab coming up on acqui-
sition through Carnarvon and Honeysuckle. Most of this
pass will be through Honeysuckle. Low elevation at
Carnarvon. Starting to get some displays back here in the
Mission Control center now. Computer is up and clear now
ready for operation.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're with you
through Carnarvon for i0 minutes.
CDR Roger, Bob.
CC Jer, did you get - -
CDR Now we're going through GNC malfunction
number 2. And we end up in box number 16, the best I can
tell.
CC Copy box 15.
CC Or 16.
CDR Roger, 16.
CC Copy.
CDR What happened is, I did a VERB 33
and entered the three numbers the 2.5, 3.33 and 3.33. And they
just - the error needles go to the right place. And
then I went back and I loaded NOUN 22 to be equal to NOUN 20.
And my error needles did not zero out.
CDR Okay. The err needles are looking
good now. I have loaded the undock DAP. And it's beginning
to look a little better.
CC Okay. Copy right now. We're - The
error needles are working properly. Is that correct?
CDR Okay. Let me Just make one more check
now. I'ii compare NOUN 20 with 22 again. I've got a
VERB 62 in it.
CDR Okay, Bob. It looks normal to us
now ,
CC Okeydoke.
CC Jer, did you guys manage to get out
of your suits, get squared away and start having some chow?
CDR Well, we didn't have any chow. We
wanted to play with this problem first and make sure we
were in good shape.
CC Rog.
CC Okeydoke.
LOS. Hawaii in 14 minutes at 15:30, 15:30.
CDR Roger, Crip.
PAO This is Apollo - Skylab Control at
9 hours 53 minutes Greenwich mean time. Honeysuckle has
SL-IV MC-2952/2
Time: 04:40 CDT, 85:09:40 GMT
2/8/74
loss of signal. The next station is Hawaii in 11-1/2 min-

utes. Computer is back up and workin_ here in the Mission
Control Center. All displays are back up and telemetry
is being processed. At 9 hours 54 minutes Greenwich mean time,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2953/I
Time: 05:04 CDT, 85:10:04 GMT
2/8/74
PA0 This is Skylab Control at i0 hours 4

minutes Greenwich mean time. Tracking station at Hawaii is
about to acquire Skylab.
CC Skylab, Houston. AOS Hawaii, 9 minutes.
CDR Roger, Houston.
CC CDR, Houston. You got a moment to chat
here?
CDR Go ahead, Bob.
CC Rog. One of the things that we are looking
at here now regarding those attitude error needles earlier was
that there is a program note on CMC that says following a
coarse align, it is possible that the error registers would
not be initialized properly and one of the ways of doing it
is by loading the undock DAP which it looks like exactly what
happened.
CDR One of the ways of fixing is to load the
undock DAP?
CC That's correct.
CDR Okay. Well, that's what happened then
because I dlda coarse align way back when, I think it was
on a P-52 option i.
CC Now that way back when was about yesterday -
But - I bet there's several iterations, Jet.
CC And CDR, Houston. Just to make sure we've
checked over everything, we would llke to go ahead and get a
VDRB 74 and so we can do an E-mod and look over the inside
of the computer.
CDR Okay. Want it right now?
CC That's affirm.
CDR You have it.
CDR (Garble)
CC Skylab, Houston. We are i minute from LOS.
Next station contact in 4 minutes through Goldstone at 15:42,
15:42.
CDR Roger, Bob.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Skylab has moved
out of range of Hawaii. Goldstone will pick up space station
in about 2 minutes.
CDR Bob, I'm going to go ahead and load P-30
for the separation burn.
CC Okeydoke and we've got you here for about
6 minutes through Goldstone.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are i minute from LOS.
Next station contact, 4-1/2 minutes, Bermuda at 15:51 and you
are GO for undocking.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC PLT, Houston. We are not copying any
biomed data on you. You might check your suit plugs.
SL-IV MC2953/2
Time: 05:04 CDT, 85:10:04 GMT
2/8/74
PLT Roger.
PAO This is Skylab Control at i0 hours 24
minutes Greenwich mean time. Goldstone has loss of signal.
Bermuda will acquire in 2-1/2 minutes. The crew has a GO
for undoeking, i0 minutes from now over the Bermuda station.
Undocking scheduled at i0 hours 34 minutes Greenwich mean
time. We'll stand by for the Bermuda pass. Should start in
about 2 minutes.
CC Skylab, Houston. AOS Bermuda for Ii
minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip. We're all ready to go.
CC Rog. Say good-bye for us; she's been a
good bird.
CDR Roger. Sure has.
CC And for the PLT, we've got good data now.
Thank you, sir.
PLT Roger, Crlp.
CC Bill, can you tell us what corrected the
problem, please?
PLT I didn't have it hooked up.
CC Copy.
PLT Crlp, you with us?
CC Yes, slr, Still got you for 3 more minutes.
PLT Okay. We're undoeked. We released the
cap the docking extender release a little bit too soon.
It caught on the capture latches, had to release them and thrust
our way off.
CC Okay. Copy.
CC Okay guys. We're i minute from LOS.
Ascension in 7 minutes at 16:08, 16:08.
CDR Roger, Crip.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Bermuda has loss
of signal. Next station is Ascension Island in 5 minutes.
Command service modules are undoeked. Commander Jerry Carr
reporting a capture latch hung up during that sequence and he was
required to thrust to get away, However, this activity did not
seem to disturb the Saturn workshop. No TACS firings were
observed during the undocking and the report is the vehicle
is stable. 158 minimum impulse burns of the thruster attitude
control system was used up to undoeking. The workshop attitude
has been controlled by TACS for some time now. Each minimum
impluse burn equivalent to 5 pound-seconds nitrogen gas. Crew
will now start a flyaround of the workshop photographing the
space station for the final time. After completing this
final inspection, the crew will slow the Apollo command
service module by a few miles an hour.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2954/I
TIME: 05:40 CDT, 85:10:40 GMT
2/8/74
PAO After completing this final inspection

the crew will slow the Apollo command and service module by
a few miles an hour and drop behind the orbiting laboratory,
eventually passing beneath it. At 6:33 a.m. central daylight
time, just under an hour from now, the bi_ main engine of
the Apollo vehicle, the service propulsion system, will be
fired for 12 seconds pushing the CSM into an egg-shaped
orbit that brings - brings it within 104 miles of the Earth.
This is the shaping maneuver. Space station itself will
remain in an orbit about 275 miles above the Earth where
it is expected to orbit until sometime in the 1980's. The
main engine will be fired again at 9:36 a.m. central daylight
time as the spacecraft passes southwest of Saigon. This is
the deorbit burn and by slowing down about 125 miles an
hour the CSM will reenter the atmosphere. Splashdown still
scheduled for 10:17 a.m. central daylight time 170 miles
southwest of San Diego. Weather conditions in that area
are satisfactory for recovery. Partly cloudy skies, 15-mile-
an-hour winds, and 3- to 5-foot seas are expected as the
U.S.S. New Orleans waits the return of America's record-
setting space crew. About a minute and a half away from
Ascension now, we'll stand by.
CC Skylab, Houston; AOS Ascension for ii minutes.
SPT Hello, Crip.
CC Hello, Edward.
SPT I'll tell you, this vehicle sure looks
like it's been worked over.
CC Oh, it's been worked in, I know that.
SPT A lot of tender loving care has gone into
the exterior of this thing.
CC Yes, sir.
CC And, for CDR's information, we're convinced
there's no problem with the computer in the software regarding
the error needle, so you're free to use that as you as you
desire.
CDR Okay, Crip_ thank you.
CDR We got one fold in the sail, Crip, that
has apparently opened up recently_ and it's a whole lot
lighter color, a lot whiter than all the rest of the folds
in the aceordian pleats in the sail.
CC Copy.
PAO This is Skylab Control. So far the
flyaround has not appeared to disturb the Saturn workshop
attitude. Crew is on schedule with the flyaround. Flight
Director Nell Hutchinson is directing the Saturn workshop
SL-IV MC2954/2
TIME: 05:40 CDT, 85:10:40 GMT
2/8/74
activities, Phil Shaffer is the Flight Director for the

command and service module.
SPT Crip, you can see two colors in the sail,
that's the sail underneath. One where it was originally covered by
the one on top, and then the one on top pulled away a little
bit, it's got two shades Of brown, one very dark, and one's
Just about a light tan.
CC Roger, copy. That's on the parasol, right?
SPT That's right.
SPT It's been a good home, Crip.
CC Yeah, sounds like it_ you guys occupied
it long enough.
CC Skylab, Houston; everything's looking
good here. You are GO for the SEP maneuver.
CDR Roger, Crip.
SPT Hey, Crip, you can tell AI Bean and guys
that they did a great job putting that sail up; it's very
symmetric.
CC Very good, I'm sure they'll appreciate
the words on their good work. Certainly helped to have it
out there to keep you comfortable.
SPT Yeah, there's only one little spot thatts
not too well covered, and unfortunately it was right by my
sleep compartment.
CC Yeah, they arranged that specifically for you,
Ed.
SPT I believe it.
SPT The only thing to look forward to, Crip,
is a bigger and better one.
CC Roger, that.
CC Okay, we're i minute from LOS. Next station
contact is through Carnarvon in 24 minutes at 16:41, 16:41.
See you there.
SPT Roger, see you there.
SPT It's been a real useful machine, Crip, hate
to think we're the last guys to use it.
CC Yes, yes, well, it certainly - certainly did
a good Job. Served its purpose.
CC Along with some real fine guys running it
for us up there, we appreciate all the good work.
SPT That's the whole NASA team that did that.
PAO This is Skylab Control_ Skylab moved out
of range of the Ascension station. Next acquisition is
Carnarvon in 21_I/2 minutes. The flyaround of the workshop
is ending at this time. And in about 4 minutes at ii hours
Greenwich mean time, they'll perform the separation maneuver
SL-IV MC2954/3
TIME: 05:40 CDT, 85:10:40 GMT
2/8/74
with the command and service module. Present orbit for

both the workshop and the CSM is 283 by 269 statute miles
or 453 by 430 kilometers. Separation maneuver is 5 feet
per second using the reaction control system of the service
module, 12-second burn. Resulting orbit is expected to
be 283 by 267 statute miles lowering perigee by 2 miles or
about 453 by 427 kilometers. This burn takes place outside
of tracking station. Spacecraft will be about 400 miles
southwest of Cape Town, South Africa at the time of the
maneuver. At i0 hours 57 minutes Greenwich mean time, this
is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2955/I
Time: 06:16 CDT, 85:11:16 GMT
2/8/74
PAO This is Skylah Control at ii hours

16 minutes Greenwich mean time. Skylab coming up on
acquisition through Carnarvon for a 10-minute pass. We'll
get a report at this station on the separation maneuver.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're AOS Carnarvon
8 minutes.
PLT Roger, Crip.
CC Okeydoke. And if you get a chance, we
would appreciate a sep burn status.
CDR Roger, Crip. The sep burn was on time.
And the yaw was 3 degrees rather than i degree. And that
was it. There were no residuals.
CC Copy. Sounds good.
CC Skylab, Houston. You are GO for the
shaping burn. And, incidentally, you have had that little
note on the top of 44, that sunset times are not correct on it.
Sunset coming up here will be at 16:50. And over Guam,
after we get the shaping burn out of the road, if we can
we'd like to get the logic sequencer checks in. And the
checklist for that is at the top of 4-5.
CDR All right, sir. We'll be ready.
CC Okeydoke.
CC CDR, Houston. We show the error
needles pegged at this time. A VERB 61 should give you
the G&N error needle.
CDR Okay.
CC We are i m_nute from LOS. Next station
contact is through Guam in 4-1/2 minutes at 16:55. 16:55.
CDR You still with us, Crlp?
CC That's affirm.
CDR Looks like BAT A might be acting
up again.
CC Copy.
CDR I put BAT C on.
CC We think it may be because we did
not charge BAT A. We (garble) contact going over
hill.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Carnarvon
has loss of signal. Next station is Guam in 3 minutes.
The separation - or the shaping maneuver will occur over
the Guam station. This is a service propulsion system
burn, the main command and service module's engine. Burn time
12 seconds. Change in velocity 279 feet per second.
We expect the resulting orbit to be 267 by 104 statute miles
or 428 by 166 kilometers. Just before loss of signal, Jerry
Cart reported it looked like battery A was acting up again
and that he'd switched to battery C. However, the EECOM
SL-IV MC-2955/2
Time: 06:16 CDT, 85:11:16 GMT
2/8/74
says that his instrumentation still shows good contact

through that circuit breaker that was the subject of
troubleshooting a few days ago and that he believes
what the commander is saying is because battery A
has not been charged. About a minute away from Guam.
We'll stand by. A shaping maneuver ignition time is
ii hours 32 minutes 54 seconds Greenwich mean time. We're
now at ii hours 30 minutes Greenwich mean time.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2956/I
Time: 06:30 CDT, 85:11:30 GMT
2/8/74
CC Skylab, Houston. We're AOS Guam, 8

minutes.
PAO The station at Guam is having problems
acquiring the CSM.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are with you through
Guam for 7 minutes.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're looking at the
residuals. We'd like - like to get the DELTA-V if we could.
The counter, that is.
CDR Okay. The counter is reading 14.8 at
40 plus 45 seconds after the burn. I gave you the time because
of the DELTA-V bias. Okay. It's here down 44's.
CC CDR, Houston. Jer, when you can get to it,
we are ready for the logic sequence of checks procedure on
the top of 4-5.
CDR Roger, Crip.
PAO This is Skylab Control. The shaping
maneuver appears to have been a good one. We did not have
data in the Control Center during the burn due to the problem
Guam had in locking up with the command service module,
CDR Okay. Houston, this is Skylab. Welre
ready to throw the CEX logic on.
CC You're GO.
CDR They're on.
CC Okay. Let us take a look at it.
CDR Okay. Standing by.
CC Skylab, Houston. Looks good here. You
are GO for POWER ON as required.
CDR Roger, Crip. Thank you.
CC We got about 3-1/2 more minutes and we'd
like to hear a little bit more about the BAT A problem if you
got time.
PLT Okay, Crip. With a putting main BUS
tying BAT A/B on, I did not get an appreciable rise in current.
It may be right. It may have not not have enough capacity to
show. But I didn't want to take any chances, so I went ahead
and then punched BAT C on and we burned that in configuration
with BAT BUS A power by BAT A and BAT C.breakers anyway, and in
BAT BUS B powered by BAT B.
CC Copy.
CC PLT, Houston. Bill, are you still in
configuration such that you've got BAT C on BAT BUS A or did
you return and put BAT A on?
PLT I returned to the original configuration -
the nominal configuration.
CC Thank you, sir.
CC PLT, Houston. Let us check it out, Would
you throw the A/C motor switch on up?
CC (Garble), right.
SL-IV MC2956/2
Time: 06:30 CDT, 85:11:30 GMT
2/8/74
PLT Okay. A/C is going to go on now. And I

did get a small rise in current that time but it still reads
on zero just off a full scale low. It looks like it is working.
CC Okay. We're about 40 seconds from LOS.
Next station contact in 24 minutes through MILA at 17:28,
17:28.
PLT And Crip, if you're happy, I'll go ahead
and turn that switch back off again.
CC You're GO to do that.
PLT Roger. Going off now.
CC Okay, Bill. We show it's about 2 amps
here and we think that BAT A is fine.
PLT Okay. Thank you.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Guam has loss of
signal. The next station will be the Merritt Island, Florida
station in 22-1/2 minutes with overlapping coverage through
Bermuda. The Goldstone station will be devoted to the Saturn
workshop on this pass over the United States and will not
acquire the command and service modules. The next maneuver schedule
is the deorbit burn, retrofire, at 14 hours 36 minutes Green-
wich mean time. The present time is ii hours 42 minutes
Greenwich mean time and this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2957/I
TIME: 06:55 CDT, 85:11:55 GMT
2/8/74
PAO This is Skylab Control at ii hours 55 minutes

Greenwich mean time. Saturn workshop is approaching acquisition
through Goldstone. The crew in the command and service modules
about 8 minutes away from Merritt Island acquisition. While
the three space veterans circle the Earth in the Apollo
spacecraft flight controllers here on the ground have beKun
extensive tests on the Saturn workshop. During the remainder
of the day and until about 2 p.m. central daylight time
tomorrow the workshop will be subjected to tests that weren't
possible while the Skylab was still in use. Some tests began
earlier this week, and the first results held some surprises for
engineers here on the ground. A battery capacity test run
on power conditioning group number 6, one of the large electrical
storage batteries powered by the orbital workshop solar wing
showed the battery capable of storing 33-1/2 ampere hours.
Since the battery was rated at 33 ampere hours before launch,
engineers were expecting it to have a reduced capacity, probably
about 26 amp hours. The PCG, first of the eight to be tested,
is performing better now than it was rated to perform 9
months ago. Tests of several other batteries among the 18
charger battery regulator modules powered by the four-bladed
solar array on the Apollo telescope mount was also made this
past week. Their CBRMs also surpassed predictions, averaging
about 15 percent better than had been expected from partial
test runs during the second and third manned flights. At
one time the reduced storage Capacity of the CBRMs concerned
flight controllers because limited energy supply could have
forced shortened Earth resources surveys. Although the batteries
which are rated at 20 amp hours have dropped to an estimated
12 amp hours had dropped to an estimated 12 amp hours during
the second manned flight about 25 cent - percent below expected
levels, the tests completed this week showed little change
over the past 5 months. The average capacity seen on these
early tests was about 10-1/2 amp hours. Today with the Skylab
astronauts in the command module and traveling in a separate
orbit now from the space station the Saturn workshop can begin
in earnest. The first major test beginning here shortly at
Goldstone, the number 1 control moment gyroscope will be powered
up for the first time since it failed ii weeks ago. On November
23, following the third Skylab crew's first space walk, Mission
Control_s guidance officer saw temperatures rise to 186 degrees
Fahrenheit and cut power to the large wheel. Without one of
three gyroscopes the 84-day flight seemed in danger of an early
end, but the two remaining gyroscopes held up beautifully
despite nearly three dozen stress periods during which control
moment gyro number 2 appeared near failure. Careful conservation
SL-IV MC2957/2
TIME: 06:55 CDT, 85:11:55 GMT
2/8/74
of the nitrogen gas supply which was a possible backup to the

more perclse gyroscope control required long hours of planning
by the Skylab crew. This morning that long rested CMG
number i will be given a test that if tried earlier might
have forced an early end to the now assured 84-day mission.
At at this time, 12 hours GMT, the space station's venting
doors will be opened and the oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere will
be released into the emptiness of space. The crew turned
the gas systems off yesterday, and the pressure was already
dropping below 5 pounds per square inch before the crew
left. About 17 hours will be required to drop the pressure to
0.5 psi, half a pound, after which the venting will be
stopped. In time the remaining atmosphere is expected to
leak slowly into space through microscopic passages in the
walls and connecting portions of the laboratory. The venting
is required to keep leakage from pushing the space station
out of what is called the gravity gradient position. Flight
controllers hope to leave the dead space station in a stable
attitude so venting, which could cause it to tumble, must
be reduced to a minimum. Although the space station can
never again be reinhabited, a selection of materials has
been left in the docking module in case some future visit
might be made. Like tests today and tomorrow the revisit
bag will aid engineers in the future design of space vehicles.
Crew's 2-1/2 minutes away from Merritt Island. So far we're
getting the same kind of currents on CMG number i that we
saw at the time it was shut down. There are no other signs
of failure at this moment. We - we have no wheel speed
indicator on CMG number i.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2958/1
Time: 07:02 CDT, 85:12:02 GMT
2/8/74
PAO This is Skylab Control. The experts

here on the ground don't expect to have any results of
this CMG number i test for a considerable length of time.
They expect to see the high amps that they are now seeing
for a neveral - another several hours as they spin up that
gyro.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're AOS through MILA.
We've got you for about 8 minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC One item for Bill. If - we think there's
no problem at all with that battery A, but if you have any
doubts when you're coming up for this next burn, you have
a GO to go ahead and put PYRO BAT A on BAT BUS A.
PLT Understand.
CC Roger. And, of course, if you did that
then anything that was called out to do, BAT A, go ahead and
Go ahead and do it the PYRO BAT A.
CC Heard you - Heard you guys thought
that - got quite a kick from SPS when you were doing
rendezvous, How does it feel after you've been up there for
about 84 days.
CDR It's a real grabber.
CC Got your attention, huh?
CDR Yes, indeed.
CC Keeping you up-to_date with what's
going on with your ex-home. We have now commanded CMG i
on. And we're sitting here looking at it. We're not
sure really what's happening, though.
CDR Is it spinning up?
CC Can't really tell at this particular
point.
CDR Yes. We knew we had lost the tachometer
on it. So we haven't really got that. We're just having
to watch the wheel currents.
CDR From the ground now.
CC Say, again.
CDR It looks like we're going to scrape
the ground we're getting so low.
CC Aha, you've been use to flying up
there pretty high.
CDR Almost looks like we're looking out
the cockpit of a T-38.
CC Roger. I've forgotten what that looks
llke, also.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are i minute
from LOS. Next station contact will be through Carnarvon
in 42 minutes. That's at 18:16. And just a matter of
information, your next senset time will be 18:21.
SL-IV MC-2958/2
Time: 07:02 CDT, 85:12:02 GMT
2/8/74
CDR Thank you, Crlp. Talk to you then

CC Rog.
CC And_ a matter of interest, you're
5 minutes from perigee, still going down. So perigee's
running right around 90 miles here.
SPT Better suck up our landing gear, I
guess.
CC (Laughter) Roger.
CDR Boy, the ground really moves a lot
faster down this low.
CC Roger that.
PAO This is Skylah Control. Bermuda has
loss of signal. Next acquisition through the Carnarvon
station in 39 minutes. The crew heading toward perigee
in this new orbit since the shaping maneuver, remarkln_
on how low they seem. Perigee is about 90 miles nautical.
And that's about 104 statute miles or 166 kilometers But,
to the crew, who has been in a much higher orbit for the
last 3 months, that seems pretty low. At 12 hours
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2959/I
Time: 07:51 CDT, 85:12:51 GMT
2/8/74

minutes Greenwich mean time. Spacecraft is about to be
acquired at Carnarvon, Australia station.
CC Skylab, Houston. AOS Carnarvon for 7
minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC Rog. We'd be interested in hearing the
results of the SCS BMAG 2 drift check and also P52 if you've
got it in.
CDR Haven't done BMAG 2. Stand by. I'ii
get you BMAG i. Okay. NOUN 20, 14.03, 130.70 and 0.89.
On the thumb wheels, it was 16.8, 132.4 and 2.1. delta-T was
32 minutes.
CC Could you read us X roll again, please?
CDR Read what again?
CC Read roll.
CDR Okay. Roll was - NOUN 20 was 14.03 and
on the thumb wheel, it was 16.8.
CC Okay. We got it. Thank you.
CDR Roger.
CDR Crip, do you want me to go ahead and do
a BMAG check on i as well?
CC No, that's not required.
CDR Okay.
CC Did you get a P52 in?
CDR Sure did. Stand by. I'ii get you that.
CC Okeydoke. Appreciate it.
SPT Oh, negative, Crip. You've all ready got
that P52. We're going to get one at this next night period.
CC Rog, rog.
CC Skylab, Houston. I can give you a little
update on the weather. As I told you earlier, it's really
looking good out there. Clouds - got a high cirrus broken
layer and visibility's i0 miles, wind is out of the north-
northeast at I0 knots, got 1-foot waves on 3-foot swells.
Temperature's about 59 degrees.
CDR Hey, that's good landlubber weather there.
CC Rog. It's always nice in southern California.
LOS. See you at Guam in 7-1/2 minutes at 18:30, 18:30.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC And we see your 52 in progress.
loss of signal. Next station is Guam in 5 minutes. At
13 hours Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab Control.
Guam
SL-IV MC2959/2
Time: 07:51 CDT 85:12:51 GMT
2/8/74
CC Skylab, Houston. We're AOS through

Guam for 6 minutes and we saw the results of the P52 so we
won't need that.
SPT Roger, Crip.
CC And if you've gotten around to looking at
it yet, we would be interested to know whether CM RCS preheat's
going to be required.
SPT Okay. Stand by, Crip. We're working something
here and we'll get back to you.
CC Okay.
CDR Okay, Crip. No preheat is required.
CC Copy that.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are i minute from
LOS. Next station contact in 20 minutes through Goldstone
at 18:55. And we'll be standing by for the command module
RCS activation at the States and I'ii also have a new entry pad
for you there.
SPT Okay, Crip.
CC We copy you're still in FREE and you're
drifting out of attitude starting T20, you might want to go to CMC
AUTO.
SPT Thank you, Crip.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Guam has loss
of signal. Acquisition through Goldetone in 18 minutes. At
13 hours 13 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab
Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2960/I
TIME: 08:30 CDT, 85:15:30 GMT
2/8/74

30 minutes Greenwich mean time. We'll get acquisition
through Goldstone in about 45 seconds.
CC Skylab, Houston; AOS across the States.
We've got you for about ii minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip.
CC Okay, if you'll give us ACCEPT, please,
we'll give you a gib state vector.
CDR You got ACCEPT.
CC Okay, fine and dandy. And when when
somebody can get around to it on need to give you a new
entry pad, page 5-2.
CDR Okay, ready to copy.
CC Okeydoke. Pad as follows: area, Echo
Oscar Mike, 5 golf, 035 plus 3132, minus 11975, 11401, 25985,
2726, 2801 minus 02723, right 5454, 3237, 2748, 3117, 3527.
Read back, please.
CDR Okay, Echo Oscar Mike 5 Golf, 035 plus
3132, minus 11975, 11401, 25985, 2726, 2801, minus 02723,
right 5454, 3237, 2748, 3117, 3527.
CC Good read back, Jet.
CC And all the original comments we gave you
on the entry pad are still valid. You can go ahead when you
get your pyro BAT checks out of the road we'll be standing
by for you to go through your RCS checks. (Garble)
CDR Pyro jet - pyro battery check is complete
and we'll start deactivation in just a second.
CC Roger.
CDR Houston, this is Skylab. We're ready
to throw the LOGIC switches.
CC Go ahead then, Jer.
CDR LOGICS are on.
CC And we're _o for PYRO ARM.
CDR Roger.
CDR There it goes.
CC Looks good here.
CDR Okay.
CC Skylab, Houston; we got the vector in and
both target loads and the computer belongs to you again.
CDR Okay, Crip, and we just threw some ice
crystals about a minute and a half ago and it's all cleared
up now.
CDR We had quite a shower of them go by on
the left side.
CC Copy that.
SL-IV MC2960/2
TIME: 08:30 CDT, 85:15:30 GMT
2/8/74
CC Could you read the ring 2 helium source

pressure, please?
CDR Okay, it's about 3450.
SPT How's that look to you, Crip? Have you
seen the change?
CC Yeah, it looks like a slow leak in it.
But it has blowdown capability.
CC Skylab, Houston; we recommend you turn
the CM RCS PROPELLANT 2 switch OFF right now.
CDR Okay, itVs OFF.
CC Skylab, Houston; we are i minute from LOS.
Next station contact in 14-1/2 minutes through the Vanguard
at 19:20, 19:20.
CDR Roger.
PAO This is Skylab Control; _erritt Island
station has loss of signal. Next acquisition will be
through the tracking ship Vanguard. A very short pass at
the Vanguard, about 2-1/2 minutes. The Vanguard will be the
last tracking station through which we can receive real time
telemetry prior to reentry. Skylab has and the crew has
completed the last orbital pass over the United States. There
will be an ARIA aircraft - tracking aircraft, in the area of
the retrofire burn through which voice communications can be
relayed and the ARIA can record telemetry but cannot relay
telemetry. Possibility of a leak in the command module reaction
control system ring number 2. The best possibility now is that
it is a helium leak at the source. Helium pressure was noted
dropping. However, the possibility does remain that it
could be a propellant leak, it's a slow leak. Propellant
leak would also cause the helium pressure to _o down. They'll
take another look at that at Vanguard. At 13 hours 46 minutes
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC-2961/I
Time: 08:55 CDT, 85:13:55 GMT
2/8/74

55 minutes Greenwich mean time. We're coming up on the
final tracking station pass of this mission, the tracking
ship Vanguard. Stand by for that.
CC Skylab, Houston. AOS the Vanguard.
We've got you for about 3 minutes.
CDR Roger, Crip. You got any updates to
our NOUN 47 and 48?
CC No updates. What you've got is good.
Regarding the si - -
CDR Okay.
CC - - Regarding the situation on the
command module RCS leak that we reported to you earlier,
it is still leaking and what we would like for you to do
is to go ahead and come in using ring i. That's the cur-
rent configuration you're in, that switch is still closed,
the one which we had you close earlier. Command module RCS
propellant 2. And you can go ahead and leave the jet select
configuration as you've got it per normal.
CDR Okay. Leave the jet select up for
set up for ring 2 and just leave the propellant switch OFF.
CC That's affirm. And - I guess, right
now we're not sure whether it's propellant or the helium
coming down. We show that this helium will be depleted in
about 1 hour. You can monitor your helium source pressure
and manifold pressure. If the source become less than mani-
fold, that tells you that you do have blow-down capability,
and that is a helium leak. And if you need - need to select
it well it's there available to you.
CDR Okay. Do you want us to test out both
rings when we get into the RCS checkout?
CC Negative. Ring i only.
CDR Okay.
CC Also, right after the retroburn we're
going to have you in an ARIA pass. At that time we
would appreciate getting a readout on your helium source
and manifold pressures.
CC For ring 2.
CDR Okay. We're tossing a few more ice
crystals now.
CC Copy that. And also when we go LOS
here, we'd appreciate it if Bill would go ahead and select
OMNI DELTA so we can be configured for the ARIA pass.
CDR Copy. OMNI DELTA.
PLT Okay, Crip.
CC We are i minute from LOS. Should see
you on the ARIA in about 37 minutes.
CDR Okay. See you there.
SL-IV MC-2961/2
Time: 08:55 CDT, 85:13:55 GMT
2_8_74
CC Roger.
CC Skylab, Houston. We are GO for deorbit
and entry.
CDR Roger. Thank you. So are we.
CC I bet that's an understatement.
PAO This is Skylab Control. Vanguard
has loss of signal. Acquisition through an ARIA aircraft
in 35-1/2 minutes. That's right about the time of the
retrofire burn. The crew will again use the big service
module engine for retrofire, buring that engine for
8 seconds and change in the velocity of 185 feet per second.
Over the Vanguard passed up the information to the crew
to monitor the difference between the helium source tank
pressure and the helium manifold pressure. If this command
module reaction control system ring 2 leak is helium in
about an hour from now the helium source tank pressure should
be less than the manifold pressure. If that occurs, it
is an indication it is indeed a helium leak and not a
propellant leak. If it's verified as a helium leak, ring 2
can still operate in the blow-down mode. This means that
when both of these rings were activated a short time ago,
that enough helium pressure and gas was trapped in each
ring to force propellants into the engines. The crew's
been advised to use ring i for entry. Command module
can safely and satisfactorily enter on any one ring to
two RCS rings on the command module for redundancy. Ring i
looks good, no problem with it. The ARIA, through which
we hope to receive voice communications in about 33 minutes,
has already taken off from Clarke Air Force Base in the
Philippines to reach the acquisition area in time. Retro-
fire will take place while the spacecraft is about 400 sta-
tue miles up north of Singapore. And itts hoped that we
will have voice communications through the ARIA from the
retroburn to command and service module separation. Call sign
is ARIA i, the crew consists of the pilots, Captain Douglas
J. Carter of Clyde, Ohio and Captain Michael J. Kiley of
Largo, Florida. Navigators are Lieutenant Colonel Wallace
E. Bebe of Bucyrus, Ohio and Major Robert W. Lendemann, Orlando,
Florida. The mission co-ordinators aboard ARIA i are Captain
Peter M. Gill of Trenton, New Jersey and First Lieutenant
Gerard F. Bell, Jr. of DeLeon Springs, Florida. Another
ARIA will be stationed in the re - near the recovery area
to, hopefully, provide voice relay and data recording from
end of communications blackout to splashdown. That ARIA will
stage out of March Air Force Base, California. With the call
sign, ARIA 2 Pilots are George C. Hubbard, Durham, North
Carolina and First Lieutenant Michael C. Landreth of Savannah,
Missouri, the navigator is Lieutenant Colonel Edward E.
Warthling, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Mission Co-or-
SL-IV MC2961/3
Time: 08:55 CDT 85:13:55 GMT
2/8/74
rdinators is Captain Fred A. Logan of Sunprairie, Wisconsin.

We'll come back up prior to ARIA acquisition, which is 30
minutes from now. At 14 ho_rs 5 minutes Greenwich mean time,
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2962/I
Time: 09:30 CDT, 85:14:30 GMT
2/8/74

minutes Greenwich mean time. We're about 5 minutes away from
acquisition through ARIA. Since exact acquisition times through
those aircraft can vary, we'll come up early and stand by for
communications. The latest weather report for the landing
zone has just been received from the Space Flight Meteorology
Group of the National Weather Service. Partly cloudy skies
are expected, surface winds from the north-northeast at lO
knots, and seas i to 2 feet with swells of 3 feet. The tem-
perature at landing should be near 59 degrees Fahrenheit.
We'll stand by for communications.
CT ARIA i, ARIA i Cape on duplex.
CT Cape, give me another duplex.
AA Cape, this is ARIA i on duplex and would
like to conclude that this (garble) is finally to load in
just a few more seconds.
CT Roger, Roger, Copy.
CDR Hook up, loud and clear.
CC Skylab, Houston. We're AOS through the
ARIA, got you for about i0 minutes. How you read?
PLT Good and clear, and we got the burn.
CC Understand you got the b_rn.
MCC Got the burn.
PLT Looks like a good one Crip. WeVll give
you the details later.
CC Roger.
CDR Steady as a rock, Crip.
PLT Minus 28.
CDR Hey Crip, we're looking at 22:00 (garble)
configured and 185 (garble).
CC Copy.
CC Skylab, Houston. If if you've got a
moment I'd like to run over the ring situation, a couple of
recommendation.
CDR Okay, go ahead Crip. We're about ready
to give it over to command module.
CC Okeydoke. If for any reason you run into
a ring i problem, which we don't anticipate, we would like
to go ahead and use what ever is left out of ring 1 or
ring 2 to go ahead and set it up for a rolling entry.
PLT Understand, if we have a problem with
ring i we'll go - use what's left instead of rolling reentry.
CC That's affirm. Also, in descent during
the repress if for any reason you should _et a fishy or an
acid smell we recommend using the 02 mask. It may be a good
idea to use them anyway, use your discretion.
CC Skylab, Houston. How do you read?
SL-IV MC2962/2
Time: 09:30 CDT 85:14:30 GMT
2_8/74
PLT We're with you sort of about clarity 3

strength four.
CC Okay, we'll say again. If for any reason
you should get a smell a fishy smell or an acid smell during
descent, we recommend you using the 02 mask. It may be wise
to use them anyway.
CC Also
CDR (Garble)
CC Also we would like to leave the PLV valve
closed, the Post Landing Vent valves closed.
CDR Copy.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2963/I
TIME: 09:38 CDT, 85:14:38 GMT
2/8/74
CC Skylab, Houston, from the report that you

gave us, of course, on the helium source and manifold pressure,
most likely we have lost one of the propellants for ring 2.
CDR Okay, Crip, we copy. We've lost one of the
propellants, you think.
CC That's affirmative.
CDR Okay, we're yawing for sep.
CC Copy, yaw for sep.
CDR (Garble) worked out pretty good.
CDR Skylab, we're ready to sep.
CC Fine.
CDR (Garble)
CC We're about i minute from LOS on the
ARIA, we should see you on the other ARIA after blackout.
CDR Roger.
PAO This is Skylab Control. The ARIA lo
loss of signal. The crew had separated the command module
form the service module after a successful deorhit burn.
Command module will reach interface with the Earth's atmosphere
at 15 hours i minute, about 15 minutes from now. The -
a readout of the mani - helium manifold pressure aboard the
command module indicates that one of the propellants is
leaking, either the fuel or the oxidizer. It's not possible
to tell which. As precaution, the crew has been advised to
not open the post landing ventilation valves so that whatever
is leaking will not get into the cabin of the command module.
They've also been advised that if they smell something fishy
or an acid smell to put on their oxygen masks. The fuel
produces a fishy smell, the oxydizer an acid smell. They were
told that as for precaution, they might want to don those masks
in any event during reentry. We will attempt to reestablish
communications after blackout ends through another ARIA. A
blackout scheduled to begin at 15 hours 3 minutes 51 seconds
Greenwich mean time and end at 15 hours 7 minutes 9 seconds -
19 seconds. When the command module should be about 300 statute
miles west of Los Angeles. The recovery carrier U.S.S. New
Orleans is on station. There will be four helicopters in the
recovery area. Designated recovery swim ELS for Earth landing
system, this will be the helicopter that drops the swimmers to
try to recover the chutes. Photo and relay, there'll be five
helicopters in the area and there'll be two standby helicopters.
We'll run down the crews and the swimmers from the helicopters.
Recovery will be piloted by Commander Bud Pocklington,
Chula Vista, California. His copilot Lieutenant Junior Grade
John Winter of Boone, Iowa. Crewmen are Chief Aviation -
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2964/I
Time: 09:50 CDT 85:14:50 GMT
2/8/74
PAO Co-pilot Lieutenant Junior Grade John Winter

of Boone, Iowa. Crewmen are Chief Aviation Machinist Mate
George Sellers, Monroe, Louisiana; Aviation Electronics
Technician Third Class Danny Porter of Dunnellon, Flordia,
and Aviation Electricians Mate Airman Richard Laird, Whitefish,
Montana. The swimmers aboard recovery are Lieutenant Junior
Grade Peter Toennies, New York City; Draftsman Third Class
Donald Brown, Hawkinsville, Georgia; Quartermaster Third Class
Clifton Johnson, Salt Lake City, Utah_ and Signalman Third
Class Jack Holly, Westlake, Louisiana. The crew of swim;
Pilot, Lieutenant Commander Gary Kochert, Marietta, Ohio;
Co-Pilot, Lieutenant Junior Grade Chip Lancaster, Phoenix,
Arizona_ Crewman Air Controlman Third Class John Brungardt of
Hays, Kansas; Air Controlman Third Class Richard White, Memphis,
Tennessee; Aviation Structure Mechanic Third Class William Cyr,
Lancaster, California. Swimmers aboard that helicopter are:
Lieutenant Junior Grade, Albert Schaufelberger, Annapolis,
Maryland; Photographers Mate Third Class Roger Dittmar, Atlanta,
Georgia, Gunners Mate Third Class Timothy Prusak, Detroit,
Michigan; Photographers Mate Third Class Hans Hemelberg,
Bellows Falls, Vermont. Pilot of the ELS helicopter is
Lieutenant Don Allen of Chickasha, Oklahoma; Co-Pilot
Lieutenant Dennis Krnckeberz, Moro, Illinois. Crewmen are
Aviation Second Class Sammy Cannon, Cedar Key, Florida; and
Aviation Structural Mechanic Third Class Carl Ratliff of
San Diego. Swimmers aboard ELS who will attempt to recover
the parachutes: Chief Personnel Man, William Panode, Richmond
New Hampshire_ Fireman Charles Thornton, Okmulgee, Oklahoma;
Yeoman James Few, Phoenix, Arizona; Aviation Structrual
Mechanic Airman Marc Regan, Pasaaic, New Jersey; Radioman
Third Class Gary Kibbee, Middletown, California; and Engine-
man Third Class Lyman Waterman, Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland.
The photo helicopter will be piloted by Lieutenant Junior
Grade Roger James of Unton, Oregon. Co-pilot Lieutenant
Junior Grade Dick Leroy, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; Crewmen
are Aviation Structural Mechanic First Class Doug Walker of
Selma, Alabama; and Aviation Structural Mechanic Third Class
James Gordon of Palm Springs, California. The relay helicoptor
pilot is Lieutenant Junior Grade Jim Kenny, Diamond Bar,
California_ Co-pilot Junior Grade George Powell, Capitola,
California. Crewmen are Aviation Electronics Technician
Second Class Mike Bearup, San Diego, California; and Aviation
Electricians Mate Third Class James Byche, Port Wentworth,
Georgia. On the standby helicopter, Pilot is Lieutenant
Paskell January of Visalia, California; Copilot Lieutenant
Junior Grade Mark Spong, Des Moines, Iowa. Crewmen: Aviation
Electronics Technician Third Class Daryll Atwood, Spokane,
Washington_ and Aviation Machinist Airman Daniel Heiser,
SL IV MC-2964/2
Time: 09:50 CET 85:14:50 GMT
2/8/74
Noblesville, Indiana. There's also a standby hel coptor

for relay piloted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Pete Marschalk,
Farmersville, New Jersey; Co-pilot Lieutenant Junior Grade
Mike Huffman, Massillon, Ohio. The crewmen are Aviation
Electricians Mate First Class Russel Binkley, Quaker Town,
Pennsylvania: and Aviation Electronics Technician Robert
Kenney of Freeport, New York. WeVre about Ii minutes away
from acquisition on the next ARIA. ARIA B. WeVll come
back up just prior to that acquisition, At 14 hours 55
minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab Control.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2965/I
Time: 10:03 CDT 85:15:03 GMT
2/8/74

minutes Greenwich mean time. Two minutes away from ac-
quisition with the ARIA aircraft and from the time that the
communications blackout should end. End blackout predicted
for 15 hours 7 minutes 19 seconds. We'll stand by. The
New Orleans reports a possible radar contact 160 miles uprange.
CDR Hello, Houston, hew do you read?
CC Loud and clear, how me?
CDR Okay, read you loud and clear_ we're
doing fine.
CC Very good.
CDR Looking good, Crip.
CC Sounds great. Hey, one thing we would
like is another reading on ring 2 helium (garble) and
manifold pressure if you could, please.
CDR It's reading about 1900, Crip.
CC Can you give us manifold, please?
CDR 285.
CC 285, copy.
PAO Drogue chute scheduled in about 2 minutes.
CC Skylab, Houston, if you end up using
your 02 masks, recommend the 02 RESET VALVE to FILL which allows
you to use the source pressure. And we encourage using the
masks.
CDR Rog, Crip.
CC Happy landing, guys.
PLT 12,000 Crip. There go the drogues.
SPEAKER (Garble)
SPT The drogues are out nice.
PLT (Garble) Beautiful.
CC Copy.
CDR Okay, the mains are unreefed, open full.
SPT Looking good, Crip. What a beautiful
sight.
PAO Crew confirms main chute deployment and
they have unreffed.
CDR Go ahead with your transmissions.
CC Read you loud and clear, how me?
CDR Loud and clear. Give us GO AHEAD with
your transmisssion, Cripper.
CC Oh, I wasn't giving you a call. I was
just saying that sounded good to me, too.
CDR Roger. Roger, chutes look good, we've
got 7000 feet.
R-I Skylab, Skylab, this is Recovery. Over.
PLT Hello, Recovery, Skylab. Loud and clear.
CDR Hello, Recovery, we're looking at 3131
and minus 11977.
SL-IV MC2965/2
Time: 10:03 CDT 85:15:03 GMT
2/8/74
R-I Recovery, roger, and I have a three-item

message from New Orleans. Message follows: Item i, interroga-
tive, RBS (?) status_ item 2, request you keep postlanding valve
closed; item 3, interrogative, ring source and manifold pressure
with (garble) Over.
CDR Okay, ring 2 source is 1900; manifold,
300. Ring i, helium, 3100; manifold, 300.
R-I Recovery, roger. New Orleans, you copy?
NEW Say again ring i.
CDR The PLV valve closed.
R-I Recovery, New Orleans, you copy (garble)
CDR 4000 feet.
R-I Recovery; understand, 4000.
SPEAKER (Garble) copy.
CDR (Garble) is 4000.
S-I New Orleans (Garble)
NEW Roger, Swim.
CDR 2500 feet.
R-I New Orleans, Recovery, stand by to post
splash.
NEW Roger, Recovery.
R-I New Orleans, Recovery, mark splash.
NEW Roger, copy.
NEW And Photo, we had a beautiful TV picture.
PAO SPLASH, MARK. 15 hours 17 minutes 55
seconds Greenwich mean time.
R-I Two drogue chutes are descending downwind
from the command module. They're about 2000 feet above the com-
mand module.
NEW Roger.
R-I New Orleans, Recovery, command module stable
II.
NEW Roger.
R-I Stand by to (garble) top.
R-1 New Orleans, mark on top. 036, 3 point -
correction, 3 miles.
NEW Rog, recovery.
PAO Command module's reported in stable II
position, which means it has flipped over. The righting
bags will be inflated and takes 5 to 8 minutes to - to -
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2966/I
TIME: 10:18 CDT, 85:15:18 GMT
2/8/74
PAO - - reported in stable 2 position, which

means it has flipped over. The riding bags will be inflated
and takes 5 to 8 minutes to right the spacecraft to stable
1 position. The splash time again marked at 15 hours, 16 minutes
55 seconds Greenwich mean time.
PAO The ELS helicopter has spotted all three
main chutes, also they've reported the drogue chutes still
in the air coming down now.
AA PLA (?) reports deplayment of the main
chute.
PAO Ship reports that the command module
splashed 6000 yards from the ship, that's about 3.4 statute
miles. Ship reports beautiful weather in recovery area,
visibility i0 miles. Command module's coming up now_ the
helicopter can see one of the uprighting bags. As soon as the
command module reaches stable i, we should get communications
between the crew and the recovery forces.
AA Command module seems to ride fairly well.
AA (garble)
PA0 All three uprighting bags now, there's a
Bu -
AA (garble) main chute.
PLT It's over us now, look at it chopping
up the water.
AA The command module is stabilized.
PAO Command module is in stable 1 now. The
Apex is up and we're starting to get some communications
between the crew aboard the command module and recovery forces.
P-I Hey, that's all that film.
P-I Aah, shit, Bill. Did you (garble)
P-I (garble)
P-I Okay, I was afraid Bill didn't load up
any for us.
NEW Recovery is making it to the command module.
Recovery has deplayed (garble)
CDR The command module is ridin% very well.
(Garble)
PLT I got 70 beats per minute on me.
PAO Swimmers have been deployed and recovery
the chutes and two swimmers in the water to attach the
sea anchor to the command module.
NEW We have recovery attaching the sea anchor.
CDR Hey, my (garble) are Just about up, Ed.
SPT Okay.
P-1 P-l, seven men are out. That is inflated
Roger.
PLT Well done.
S-1 I want to come out here.
S-I Got to get the recovery antennas out and
all that?
SL-IV MC2966/2
TIME: 10:18 CDT, 85:15:18 GMT
2/8/74
PLT Yep.
CDR Doing it now.
CX (garble) you got it.
PLT Yeah I got you on the lay out.
NEW Okay, PLT push (garble) through top.
(garble) of recovery verified.
PLT Right H&R verify?
CC (Garble) AM to TR verify.
PLT Verify our to 9.
CT Okay,
PLT Okay, verified
CT (garble) A and B
SPT Verified.
CDR Houston, Skylab, how do you read?
CDR Recovery, Skylab, how do you read?
R-I Skylab, Recovery loud and clear.
NEW Contact Recovery forces.
R-I Skylab, Recovery got you loud and clear,
how me?
R-2 2 recovery, Skylab how do you read?
R-I Skylab, Recovery loud and clear, how me?
CDR I read you loud and clear.
CDR I read you loud and clear.
R-2 Roger. Be advised you got a (garble)
CDR Okay, thank you.
NEW The sea anchor has been attached, The
command module seems to ride very well.
PAO The sea anchor has been attached to the
command module and the pilot of the photo helicopter reports
command module is riding very well now. That sea anchor slows
the drift of the command module, and allows the other swimmers
to get their floatation collar on.
R-I Recovery.
SPT - - DR, 70, SPT,80 and PLT is 80,
NEW Ro_er. And from the New Orleans welcome
home.
PLT Thank you, that sounds very good,
CDR Good to be back.
SPT Glad to be home.
R-I And from the Recovery welcome home.
PLT Thank you troops,
NEW (garble)
CC Roger, recovery.
R-I (garble)
NEW Say a_ain, please.
R-I (garble) roger
NEW You got a lot of squeal there Recovery.
You aren't readable, try again) please,
R-I Skylab, this is recovery. (garble) you want
us to talk to you?
SL-IV MC2966/3
TIME: 10:18 CDT 85:15:18 GMT
2/8/74
PLT Roger, New Orleans, go ahead.

NEW Negative, Skylab that photo was commentary
you were listening to.
CDR Roger.
P-I And they are attaching the floatation collar
at this time.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2967/I
Time: 10:26 CDT 85:15:26 GMT
218174
R-I (Garble)
CDR Roger.
R-I (Garble) flotation collar at this time.
PAO Recovery of the chutes is proceeding now.
NEW Roger, Photo.
PAO There are two swimmers on each chute.
They'll get those into liferafts.
R-I (Garble)
R-I Skylab, Recovery (garble) flotation collar
around the command module. The command module is riding very
well. The swells are about 2 to 3 feet.
PAO Flotation collar now being placed around
the command module. Total of i0 swimmers in the water
attaching the flotation collar and recovering the parachutes.
NEW ELS, New Orleans. What status chutes?
R-I New Orleans, ELS. We have six swimmers
in the water. Three liferafts and two chutes are being
retrieved at this time.
NEW Roger. Interrogative third chute? I
don't think the swimmers can find it.
R-I Roger.
NEW ELS, interrogative distance between module
and chutes?
R-l No more than about a hundred yards.
75 to
i00 yards.
NEW Roger.
R-I Collar floatation placed all around the
command module.
PAO The report is that two chutes are now
being placed in the liferafts. It's unclear whether the
third chute has been recovered.
R-I The Swim helicopter is searching for the
apex cover.
R-I ELS, swimmers continue to retrieve two main
chutes. The flotation collar is being inflated.
NEW Roger.
PAO Flotation collar is being inflated now.
The command module apex cover has been spotted a couple of
miles away from the splash point and the helicopter is en
route to that area to try to retrieve that.
S-I Flotation collar is inflated.
R-I Roger.
R-I Have you copy location of apex cover?
R-I Command module continues to ride very
well. The ELS swimmers are stowing three main - two main
chutes.
NEW Roger.
S-I New Orleans, have location of the apex
cover in sight.
NEW Say again?
S-L Recovery swimmers are attaching the (garble)
SL IV MC-2967/2
Time: 10:26 CDT 85:15:26 GMT
2/8/74
NEW Roger.
PAO The Swim helicopter reports that it has
the apex cover in sight and is getting ready to deploy
swimmers to recover it.
NEW (Garble) New Orleans, (garble)
R-I Roger. Still retrieving two chutes.
The third chute is unknown.
NEW Roger.
R-I Recovery (garble) command module. (Garble)
NEW Photo, in your commentary, keep me ad-
vised as to (garble) recover of chutes.
P-I Photo, Rog.
PAO The recovery raft has now been deployed
by the helicopter. It will be inflated, brought up next to
the command module to provide a working platform for the
swimmers. The command module range from the ship is now
3500 yards. That's two statute miles.
R-I Roger.
PAO The recovery raft is now being inflated.
Two chutes are still in the process of being recovered. It's
still unclear whether the third chute has been retrieved,
S-I Raft has been inflated and is being
attached to the flotation collar.
NEW Roger.
PAO Liferaft is now being attached to the
flotation collar.
P-I Now (garble) to continue to retreive the
two main chutes.
NEW Roger.
P-I Command module continues to ride very
well.
PAO Photo reports the command module still
riding well.
NEW ELS, New Orleans,iis commit approach,
keep the main chute recovery to the left of the command
module, if possible.
S-I Roger.
R-I New Orleans, Recovery to (garble)
NEW Roger.
S-I New Orleans, swim is breaking hover to
deploy swimmers on the apex cover.
NEW Rog, swim.
PAO Four swimmers at the command module and
six additional swimmers retrieving the parachutes.
PAO The Photo and Recovery helicopters are
returning to the New Orleans. The other three helicopters
remaining in the vicinity of the splash.
CDR How close did we come, New Orleans?
NEW Looks like about 3 miles to us.
SL IV MC-2967/3
Time: 10:26 CDT 85:15:26 GMT
2/8/74
CDR Thank you.

PLT Not too bad for the first time.
NEW Roger that.
NEW Command module is riding well. Recovery
operations are proceeding as normal.
PLT Roger.
P-I ELS, swimmers are still retrieving two
main chutes.
NEW ELS, New Orleans, (garble)
R-I We can't tell exactly how much of the
chutes - -
PAO The crew asked the New Orleans a short
time ago how close they came to the ship. They were told
about 3 miles, and responded that wasn't too bad for the
first time.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2968/I
Time: 10:38 CDT 85:15:38 GMT
2/8/74
PAO They came to the ship. They were told

about 3 miles and responded that wasn't too bad for the first
time.
NEW To all the swimmers, employ AT swimmers and
second man raft on the apex cover.
R-I Roger 420.
PAO The report now is that two of the three
main chutes have been recovered_ but that the third chute
sank before the swimmers could attach flotation gear to it.
The recovery ship reports recovery operations are going
smoothly and they're essentially on the time line that was
established during simulations of this operations.
NEW The prime recovery ship is about mile
down range,
PAO The New Orleans reports that command
module is now approximately 1 mile from the ship.
S-I Standby for chute recovery at this time.
P-I Rogers they're still returning the chute.
S-I New Orleans_ PLA say again.
NEW - - later desires to know approximately
what percent is remaining.
P-I Roger, stand by i.
R-I To all swim, AT swimmers have secured the
apex cover is (garble) out, and looks like the apex is about
1000 yards up wind from the command module.
PLS Roger. The PLS has the cover to be returned.
R-I Roger, thank you PLS.
NEW PLS, Understand (garble) lost.
CT Roger, appreciate your coverage. The third
one is (garble) now.
NEW Roger.
AA 006, 006, PLS. Over.
AA 006, 006, PLS. Over.
PAO The Skylab space station is now passing
out of range of the Vanguard. Battery capacity tests have
been conducted during this pass.
CT Go ahead.
P-I Command module is riding well. The
primary recovery ship is about three-quarters of a mile down
wind.
CDR New Orleans this is Skylab, we've killed
the recovery Beacon.
NEW Roger, Skylab.
PAO The ship is now three-quarters of a mile
away from the command module. All ten swimmers collecting
around the command module. And on board the New Orleans a
large part of the crew is on deck watching this recovery
operation.
SL-IV MC2968/2
Time: 10:38 CDT 85:15:38 GMT
2/8/74
P-I Recovery oPerations of the CM by the

primary recovery ship now is about a half mile down wind.
PAO This is Skylab Control. We're going to
turn this release line now over to the NASA Public Affairs
Officer on the recovery ship, Larry King who is at the deck
edge elevator now observing recovery operation.
NEW This is a platform about 25 or 30 feet
square and is used to transport aircraft and helicopters back and
forth between the flight deck and the hanger deck. And at
this point the elevator is at the hand deck level, the lower
level. And the command module will be lifted on to the
elevator with the crane which is mounted just forward of the
elevator on the side of the ship. On the ship we have crews
of sailors (garble) standing by. They will be ready to guide
the command module as it's being lifted in to try to keep the
command module from be_innin_ to sway back and forth. And
their job is to control the command module until it's lowered
gently into a wheeled dolly which is aboard, which we'll
leave the command module on that until we get into San Diego.
Command module now floating easily just a few yards ahead of
the bow of U.S.S. New Orleans. A sailor with a line gun
stands ready. As soon as the command module comes along side
he will fire a shot llne out to one of the swimmers on the
command module. The swimmers will pull in the shot line and
pull to them a heavier line which is called the inhaul line.
The inhaul line will then be used to maneuver the spacecraft
into a position under the crane where the lifting hook will be
attached to a bail atop of the spacecraft and they'll be
ready to lift the command module aboard New Orleans. Some
of the swimmers now moving out from the command module
clearing away. The swimmers will be recovered via a cargo
net about i00 feet forward of the number 2 elevator on the
starboard of New Orleans. We have I0 swimmers out there
waiting patiently, four of them at the command module and
the other six in rafts with apparently two of the three
chutes which they recovered from the water. And we have
no word on whether or not they were able to recover the
apex cover which was spotted floating a couple miles away.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2969/I
TIME: 10:49 CDT, 85:15:49 GMT
2/8/74
NEW - - chutes they recovered from the water.

And we have no words on whether or not they were able to
recover the apex cover which was spotted floating a couple
of miles away from the command module. And now off to the
south, I can see flying b_, one of the HCI30's. This is one
- two aircrafts that were stationed, one of them approximately
i00 miles uprange and another one approximately 200 miles down-
range from the target point. Those are Air Force aircraft from
McClelland Air Force Base and they had aboard crews of Air Force
Jumpers who are equipped and prepared to parachute into the water
and perform most of these recovery functions that the Navy
swimmers have performed this morning. They were there in the
event of an overchute or underchute landing at some far distance
away from the New Orleans, the prime recovery ship.
NEW Command module now about 75 yards up to
the off the starboard side of the New Orleans and the shotllne
has been fired, the swimmer's in the water, he has the float,
he hands the shotline, the end of the shotline at the end of
the raft along side the command module and another swimmer
in the raft is hand over handing the U-haul line out to his
position from the ship. The ship is almost stopped. Captain
upon the bridge periodically throws a woodchip into the water.
And you can tell by the movement of that woodchip with respect
to the chip whether or not the ship is moving and if so, how
much and in what direction. Command module floating very easily,
almost no sea. The astronauts are getting a good ride this
morning. We see no indication of any leaks with the RCS system.
The swimmers there do not have their scuba masks on. Command
module now in underneath the crane. And they are lowering the
lifting hook down to the command module. Swimmer's have the llne.
It's a bit of a tough job now to climb up and attach this
lifting hook to the command module. The three inflation bags
are clearly visible. Seemingly, just about a 50-50 chance
whether or not one of these command modules goes to stable II
on landing. They have the hook now at the male end, and they're
making the final hookup and I believe the hook is (garble) in
liftln_ bail. Now they're having just a little bit of
difficulty with it. The hook is at the lifting bail and there
it snaps in. And the first tension comes on the llne. The
swimmers now disengage the the recovery raft. The swimmers
are on the raft and they're moving out away from the command
module. And we're ready to bring the command module aboard
the number 2 elevator on the starboard side of New Orleans.
Meanwhile the ship slowly, slowly moving around (garble) as the
wind blows the bow around., very calm sea.
SL-IV MC2969/2
TIME: 10:49 CDT, 85:15:49 GMT
2/8/74
NEW Command module does not appear to be

burned, hardly at all compared with those command modules
which came back from the Moon. Slightly scorched, scorched a
little more, of course, on the leading edge but the heatshield
looks to be in very good shape. Command module now up at about
the same height of the elevator, clear out of the water. A little
bit of water dripping off of it. I see no siKns of any
RCS fuel escaping from the command module. The command module
now swinging in over the elevator, the next thing will be to
remove the flotation collar. Lower the command module down
so it just touches the deck. And now the crew's move in wearing
breathing masks. And they're goin_ to cut away the flotation
collar which has been - which was affixed to the command module
by the swimmers. Flotation collar now free. They'll llft the
command module again. Flotation collar now completely removed.
They'll move the dolly in under the command module and set
the spacecraft down into the dolly. And overhead one of the
big Air Force HCI30's, flying by getting a look at the activity
down here. Dolly being chained in place. In just a moment now,
they'll lower the command module into place. Command module
coming down, touches slightly. Ship almost no rolllnK motion
at all this morning. And the command module in place on the
dolly. And now personnel moving out there with sniffers.
Their objective, to determine whether or not any RCS fuel may
be leaking from the spacecraft. They check at each of the orifices
of the thrusters. Now one of them removes some of the lines
from the spacecraft that was used to bring the spacecraft into
the ship. And we get the signal the spacecraft appears to be
okay. They're moving up now with the platform which will be
placed in front of the spacecraft to allow access up to the
hatch area. Next activity they will install thrustor plugs
with drains in the thrusters that are near the hatch area.
These will take any fumes up and away from the spacecraft and
drain them overboard - -
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2970/I
Time: 10:58 CDT 85:15:58 GMT
2/8/74
NEW -- fumes out and away from the spacecraft.

And drain drain them overboard.
NEW Platforms' in place and now another plat-
form, which is installed on the forklift trunk is being moved
in place. The platform has three chairs on it. And in the
event that the doctors determine that the astronauts should
be removed this way, they'll be driven a short distance, about
50 feet in these chairs on this forklift, over and enter the
Skylab mobile laboratory, which is in place here on the
hanger deck of the New Orleans. It's also a possibility that
the doctors could determine that the best procedure would
be the supine recovery, in which case they would be carried
to the Skylab mobile lab in stretchers. We're ready in either
event here. One of the technicians using a syringe to take sea
water out of the oriface of one of the thruster nozzles. Just
as he completes that he'll install the thruster plugs and then
Mel Richmond. the NASA team leader, the recovery team leader
aboard the New Orleans will move in, and we'll be ready to open
the hatch, give these three astronauts a chance to get back in
Earthly air again. I've just been informed that the ship
will maneuver to pick up the apex cover, which has been
sighted nearby. That procedure will go on at the same time
as we're removing the astronauts from the command module here.
The thruster plugs are still being installed in the command
module at the two orifaces above and below the hatch. The
installation now appears to be complete and they're checking that
installation. And now a metal platform, which really is a
step. It's about 14 inches high is being installed on the
platform. The purpose of this is to furnish a step for the
astronauts as they get out of the command module. And, of
course secondarily to protect the thruster plugs which are
in underneath that step. And now that installation is complete.
Looks like we have word there's no sign of any RCS fuel leaks
whatsoever. The command module appears to be perfectly safe. Mel
Richmond and the three prime recovery doctors have moved up
on the platform now, and Mel has got the hatch handle in
place and he's opening the hatch. Turns it first to the right
and then to the left, and then to the right. Mel having
a little difficulty with the hatch. This is not the
first time, we have had difficulty, the last two or three
recoveries, as I recall. There's a rather complicated pro-
cedure to open the hatch. It requires activity both inside
and outside the command module. There they have the hatch
open, bearing it open. The chair _oes up. We can see the
astronauts in there. They're smiling and shaking hands. It
appears from here as we've got three very happy guys in there.
I can see Dr. Gibson, He's got a big smile on his face as he talks
to Dr. Jerry Hordinsky, the team leader of the medical team
SL IV MC-2970/2
Time: 10:58 CDT 85:15:58 GMT
2/8/74
here for the recovery aboard New Orleans. The plan

is that Dr. Hordinsky will enter the command module and will
talk to the three astronauts for a period of timep take
blood pressures. And at the conclusion of that he will
determine whether or not we will have a supine recovery or
whether they will be recovered and transported to the SML
unit in the chairs on this forklift platform. I don't think
there's much doubt what the astronauts would perfer. Dr.
Hordinsky now sitting in the hatch, Dr. Ed Burchard there with
him. Standing by, Dr. Charles Lapinta, and Mel Richmond.
I see Mel Richmond is holding three IP - three VIP type hats,
ball caps. These will be carried to the astronauts inside.
(Garble) they will wear them as they exit from the command
module. Dr. Burchard now has a clipboard, making some entries.
This is only the beginning for the astronauts. They face
about 6-1/2 hours of medical procedures today. Of course,
they've already been up some 13 hours and then tomorrow
morning bright and early they will get started on another
medical protocol expected to take about 13 hours. The ship
will arrive at San Diego at 9:00 a.m. pacific daylight time
tomorrow with the astronauts on board. The astronauts will
stay on board and complete the medical procedures tomorrow,
and 3 or 4 hours of medical procedures Sunday morning, and
then return to Houston by air from San Diego Sunday afternoon,
A big crowd of sailors here on the New Orleans awaitin_ the
appearance of astronauts Carr, Gibson and Pogue. Dr. Hordinsky
still perched in the hatch. Dr. Burchard making notes on his
clipboard. Mel Richmond looking over his shoulder, and Dr.
Charles Lapinta looking over their shoulder. One the AC-13Os,
I can still see circling overhead. He has a good view for
this activity taking place out on the starboard elevator of
New Orleans. The New Orleans as this is going on, is maneuvering
toward the apex cover, which has been sight a short distance
away, and will apparently be recovered.
END OF TAPE
SL IV MC-2971/I
Time: 11:08 CDT 85:16:08 GMT
2/8/74
NEW - recovered. Dr. Hordinsky's still perched

in the hatch of the command module. We indicated that he expected
to take 8 to i0 minutes for this very preliminary medical
evaluation.
NEW Absolutely gorgeous day out here for recovery.
We had something less than 15 knots of wind, sea swells
that were only perhaps 4 feet high. Good visibility. Just
a very thin layer of high clouds, but the Sun shines through
them. I'm sure that the astronauts enjoyed their stay on
the surface. I don't think there was ever problem with sea-
sickness on a day like this. Recovery operations so far are
going very, very smoothly. With the discovery of that in-
dication of a leak in the RCS system, there was some final
bit of preparation on board as everybody ran through the
procedures and the swimmers were notified that there might
be a problem, but advised to remain on scuba air, but apparently
there was no problem, and it did not affect the recovery in any
way so far. Dr. Hordinsky leaning way into the command
module now, Dr. Burchard still making notes. We have with
us today, Senator Frank Voss, who is the chairman of the
Senate Space Committee. We also have Major General Kenneth
R. Chapman from the Air Force, who heads up the Department
of Defense Manned Space Flight Support Operations at Patrick
Air Force Base in Florida_ and is the DOD person responsible
for all recovery operations. Also Rear Admiral Richard
Haddocks, who is Commander of Task Force 130, for which this
ship works for during recovery operations. Dr. Hordinsky
now completely inside the command module and Dr. Burchard
perching on the hatch. I believe that they're taking
blood pressure measurements, pulse measurements and talking
with the crew. Mel Richmond standing by, waiting to hand
in those caps, and I think that'll be our signal that the
astronauts are about ready to come out. Dr. Burchard making
notes on his clipboard, and I notice that he has a tape
recorder in his hand too. Dr. Charles Lapinta standing by
to assist if needed, and also at the foot of the steps leading
up to the platform are three other doctors, Dr. George Hoffler,
Dr. Arnold Nicogossian and Dr. Stewart Bergman. Each one of
these three doctors has been assigned one of the astronauts, and
he will remain with the astronaut during this short 50-foot
ride from the command module to the Skylab mobile laboratory
which are set up here on the hanger deck of New Orleans.
And now two HCI30's flying in formation over the recovery area.
Flying low altitudes, about a i000 feet up. Mel Richmond now
leaning into the command module. Dr. Lapinta standing by
looking over Dr. Burchard's shoulder. Dr. Burchardp Dr.
Lapinta both looking at the clipboard now. The doctors
have indicated that they hope to have the astronauts into
SL IV MC-2971/2
Time: 11:08 CDT 85:16:08 GMT
2/8/74
the Skylab mobile laboratory in about an hour after splash.

And we're going to have to hurry if we're going to make that.
It appears that they)re just about ready to come out now.
NEW HCI30's still circling around, From my
vantage point now, I cannot see the apex cover. I don't
know whether we're approaching it, or perhaps it's already
aboard. I can see Dr. Hordinsky moving around inside the
command module. Dr. Burehard is seated in the hatch, still
making notes on his clipboard. No indication of any problem
at all. Dr. Lapinta and Mel Richmond chatting as they - Mel
waits to hand in their caps. we've got sailors just
tucked up in every nook and cranny here around this hangor
deck area, waiting to greet the astronauts as they come out.
The doctors have anticipated - with a great deal of interest,
this first bit of data that they'll Bet from these three
astronauts who have spent the last 84 days in a weightless
condition. Their feeling, I believe) is that the more data
and the best data they can get_ just as quickly as they can
Bet it. the more valuable it will be. One of them made the
statement the other day that he didn't know how famous these
three astronauts would be as far as the general public is
concerned, but as far as the medical profession is concerned)
their fame is assured. They)re _oing to be three very famous
men in the medical profession.
END OF TAPE
SL-IV MC2972/I
TIME: 11:20 CDT, 85:16:20 GMT
2/8/74
NEW Dr. Burchard still makin_ his notes.

And we must have every sailor onboard, who does not have a
distinct Job somewhere else this moment, waitin_ down here
at the hanger deck or hanger bay waiting to greet these
astronauts. They seem to be waiting patiently, all eyes are
on the hatch the open hatch of the command module. And now we
see some movement there. Mel Richmond leans in now. I
believe we're going to have the first astronaut coming out
here in just a moment. Jerry Hordinsky or Dr. Hordinsky
back up now, he's seated in the hatch. Here's Dr. Burchard
leaning in talking to the astronauts. Dr. Lasinda now has
the ball caps. It appears that the first astronaut to come
out will be Dr. Ed. Gibson, he's in the center seat and will
be the logical one to come out first. I believe we're ready
now. Dr. Burchard, Mel Richmond now leaning talking to
Ed Gibson. There, I can see Ed Gibson in the hatch, faint smile.
He's got his cap. Doctors all back out on the platform now, and
Mel Richmond is leaning in with a last word for Ed Gibson.
And here he is coming out through the hatch now. Stands for
just a moment in the open hatch. Getting his land legs back.
Big smile and a wave. And a cheer goes up on the ship. Ed
say's "I feel great" And he's being helped to his chair,
doesn't appear to be as wobbly as I thought he might be. He's
being helped there, he's seated now on this platform. And Bill
Pogue is now - with a beard is sitting in the hatch and is
coming out now. He's seated in the hatch with both feet on the
platform, sitting there for just a minute. He's Standing up
rather carefully. He's got a good beard, he's now talkin_ to
Dr. Ed Burchard and a smile and a laugh. I don't know what
they said to make him laugh but a cheer from all on the hand-
decker here of New Orleans. Bill Pogue now bein_ helped to his
chair. And the ship is rolling Just a bit. Got a handshake all
around and he's seated in his chair and now Jerry Carr is in the
hatch with another big beard. He's sitting in the hatch, he's
chatting with the doctor and they're all laughing. Now he's
standing up, big smile a wave and a salute. There is a happy
spacecraft commander. Looks up and waves and now he's being
helped to his seat. And it appears the band is getting ready
to strike up. Three astronauts now seated on this platform on
the forklift truck. Forklift truck will back away from space-
craft and then move in to place by the command module. (Music)
I just talked to Jerry Hordinsky and he's says the crew is
obviously very_ very good. He's say's their pulse rates and
their blood pressure are just a little bit shakey but that was
expected. He says they're in fine shape, he's very pleased
with the shape our three astronauts are in. They're seated on
the platform, they're laughing and smiling. Moving up now
SL-IV MC2972/2
TIME: 11:20 CDT, 85:16:20 GMT
2/8/74
towards the Skylab mobile laboratory where they'll spend the

next 6 or 7 hours in medical procedures. They're in place,
Astronaut Carr now is moving off the platform, moving down
and into the SML laboratories. Obviously three very happy
fellows there this morning. And they're - all three astronauts
in the Skylab Mobile Laboratories. And this recovery - this
phase of the recovery is complete, the astronauts now will
begin about 6-1/2 hours of debriefing. That is medical
debriefing. Stand by one, I'ii be away from this phone for
Just a few minutes.
NEW Houston, Recovery. This is New Orleans'
PAO.
CC Go ahead, New Orleans' PAO.
PAO This is Skylab Control, that ends the
commentary from the recovery ship, U.S.S. New Orleans.
Crew has entered the mobile labarotories for medical examinations.
Very noisy here in the control center right now as everyone
is shaking hands, puffing away at cigars. The plaque has
been hung containing this crew's patch - been hung on the wall
of the second floor of Mission Control room, along with the
plaques of the Skylab Program. Skylab II and IIl and the
Mission Control center patch. On the large screen in the
center of the control room was displayed a large reproduction
of the Mission Control Center patch with the three
END OF TAPE
SL-IV M02973/I
Time: 11:34 CDT 85:16:34 GMT
2/8/74
PAO large reproduction of the Mission Control

Center patch with the three crew patches superimposed on
on that. And the words welcome home Skylab, man in space
teamed with man on Earth for science to benefit all mankind.
That display has now changed to another one. Reproduct
separate reproductions of the four crew patches, and it reads,
Skylab, the world's largest space station, mans longest
venture into space, improved understanding of the universe
rediscovery of the planet Earth, accomplishment of major
space vehicle repair man machine and spirit in a truly
creditable accomplishment. We'll keep this line up. Flight
Controllers will continue on duty until mid-afternoon tomorrow
conducting test of the space station. And we will have
commentary on those test from time to time today and
through out tomorrow. At 16 hours 35 minutes Greenwich
mean time. One announcement here before we end this com-
mentary. The post recovery briefing is scheduled in
approximately 30 minutes in the Building 1 briefing room
at the Skylab News Center, here at JSC. That will be in
the briefing room, and not in the large auditorium. The
briefing will open with short statement by Dr. James C.
Fletcher, the NASA Administrator. Briefing participants are
William C. Schneider, Skylab Program Director, Kenneth S.
Kleinknecht, the JSC Skylab Program Manager, Leland F. Belew,
the Marshall Space Flight Center Skylab Program Manager, "
Phil Shaffer, Flight Director for reentry, Alan B. Shepard,
Chief of the Astronaut Office, Dr. Royce Hawkins, Deputy
Director for Medical Operations at JSC, Coln - Col. Alan R.
Vette, Director of the DOD Manned Space Flight Support Office.
That briefing beginning in approximately 30 minutes. At
16 hours 36 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is Skylab
Control.
END OF TAPE

Skylab 4 PAO Mission Commentary 31 of 32

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SL-IV MC-2900/I

Time: 09:18 CDT, 83:14:18 GMT

PAO This is Skylab Control at 14 hours

PAO This is Skylab Control at 15 hours

PAO This is Skylab Control 16 hours 35 minutes

PAO This is Skylab Control at 17 hours

PAO This is Skylab Control at 18 hours

PAO This is Skylab Control at 19 hours

PAO 19 hours 41 minutes Greenwich mean time.

PAO 20 hours 13 minutes Greenwich mean time.

CC ATM Systems Checklist and Data, a big

station between here and Vanguard again. 20 hours 25 minutes,

PAO 20 hours 30 minutes Greenwich mean time.

PAO 21 hours 52 minutes Greenwich mean time

CC Okay. Ed, there's one possibility here

CC Okay, when you wound up this last time

CC About how far out was the tray still

CC Okay, so you're talking - you're

CC (Laughter) Okay, 30 seconds to LOS here.

PAO Loss of signal through Vanguard. Next

CDR Roger, 22:49, LEFT to RIGHT.

PAO _ - did before. TheyTve been recovering

PAO 22 hours 48 minutes Greenwich mean time.

CC No, no, not at all. They just didn't

CC Okay, we're i minute from LOS. Next

PAO 23 hours 32 minutes Greenwich mean time.

Could be a bunch of Nikon Charlie X-rays, a couple of Charlie

CDR - is empty; Nikon 05 has Charlie X-ray

PAO 23 hours 45 minutes Greenwich mean time.

CDR Okay, we think that with the photomic on

PAO 27 minutes Greenwich mean time. The space

moment gyro number i heaters, bearing heaters will be turned

PAO - they've allowed a new parameter of

than 2-minute recovery time for all three crewmen as opposed

PAO 50 minutes Greenwich mean time, this is

PAO - through the Hawaii tracking station.

PAO tracking station. Wakeup planned

The Ladies Home Journal has agreed to serialize Spiro T.

PLT Sounds like Barry's in rare form.

CC Skylab, this is Houston, I minute to LOS.

PAO This is Skylab Control; Skylab's moved

PAO This is Skylab Control; Honeysuckle has

CDR Okay, Bruce.

CC Skylab, this is Houston through Gold-

PAO This is Skylab Control. ll hours 57 minutes

CC Skylab, this is Houston through Guam

CC Skylab, this is Houston with the daily

Heater's been on close to an hour and a half. Temperatures

PAO - - logical features and other subjects

and then leave the switch in optic zero, please. Over.

PAO This is Skylab Control at 13 hours

CC Jerry, the quick-look response here is

PAO This is Skylab Control at 14 hours

CC - this is Houston through Goldstone

CDR Everybody's right up to speed, right

PAO This is Skylab Control. Had loss of

PAO This is Skylab Control at 16 hours

PAO This is Skylab Control at 17 hours

PAO - - minutes in tape of the Vanguard pass

CC Skylab, we're back with you through

CDR Good night, Story.

PAO 1 hour 33 minutes Greenwich mean time,

CC Skylab, we're a minute from LOS. The next