Skylab 1 pictures

[The Rat]

Old farts like me remember Skylab 1 going into orbit, and finding out almost immediately that there was trouble. I would presume that telemetry would indicate things such as unopened solar panels, but there were reports at the time that there were photos taken which showed the extent of the problem, but would not be released for fear that intelligence gathering capabilities would be exposed and compromised.

So my question is this; have any of these photos been released yet? C'mon guys, it's been over thirty years, surely you can't still be hiding how good your lenses were!

Can you?

And no, I'm not woo-woo.

I hope.

[John Kierein]

I worked on Skylab and I know that the pictures were taken, but I never saw them. They were good enough that they showed that the solar panels were being held down in their launch position by a strap, a piece of metal from the missing meteoroid shield deployment mechanism. Pete Conrad used a metal cutter that he carried up in the Apollo module specifically for the purpose of cutting this strap. It is said he rode the solar array as it deployed when he cut the strap. Quite a ride.

I agree, it's about time we saw the pictures.

[R.A.F.]

Are you speaking of pictures taken from the surface of the Earth???

[The Rat]

Are you speaking of pictures taken from the surface of the Earth???

Yup, but the men in black won't let us see them...

[R.A.F.]

Assuming these "pictures" exist, what would be the purpose of not disclosing them, now...I don't see how they would compromise intelligence after 30+ years.

Added...though it's not a "lunar conspiracy", you might want to ask this question on that forum...or perhaps ask the BA to move this thread there...

[John Kierein]

I don't think the pictures were taken from the earth; I suspect they were from an orbiting vehicle that they pointed toward away from earth toward Skylab. A spy satellite like a Keyhole satellite.

http://www.space.com/news/secret_sat_000906.html

Certainly not a conspiracy topic; just a matter of declassification. They images may be buried in a set of already declassified images that nobody recognizes what they are pictures of.

[John Kierein]

If you scroll about halfway down you can see what the first manned Skylab apollo module saw during a fly around to inspect the damage prior to docking. Note how small the the strap is that held down the solar array. It must have been a wonderful camera that imaged this before the module got there even if it was taken from space.

http://www.apollomissionphotos.com/index_org_sky2.html

(By the way I saw this launch from the VAB parking lot VIP area. The only manned launch I ever witnessed.)

[Tuckerfan]

The government still had things from WW II classified as late as the 1980s (and they may still be classified, I don't know), so expecting them to declassify something from 30 years ago is a bit much, I'm afraid. Would be nice to see the photos, though.

[KerryF]

On page 152 of "Brassey's Air Power: Aircraft Weapons Systems and Technology Series Volume 10 - Military Space" (phew..) ISBN 0-08-037347-X

is photograph of Skylab 'obtained using the Air force Maui Optical Station 1.6 metre telescope operated by Avco Research Laboratory' a ground based scope..its a bit fuzzy but clear enough to tell what has and hasn't deployed. I imagine the military have better quality shots taken by similar (or the same) scopes.



(actually looks better if you shrink the image a bit)

[ngc3314]

On page 152 of "Brassey's Air Power: Aircraft Weapons Systems and Technology Series Volume 10 - Military Space" (phew..) ISBN 0-08-037347-X

is photograph of Skylab 'obtained using the Air force Maui Optical Station 1.6 metre telescope operated by Avco Research Laboratory' a ground based scope..its a bit fuzzy but clear enough to tell what has and hasn't deployed. I imagine the military have better quality shots taken by similar (or the same) scopes.

(actually looks better if you shrink the image a bit)

That's an excellent catch! It is also a lot easier to interpret if you reverse the contrast back to positive. It seems to be well after launch, since one of the main solar arrays has been deployed. This does show that they could have told perfectly well when it had not deployed, although not necessarily why from similar pictures alone.

Hmm. If this was done very late in Skylab's lifetime, it may have used an early AO system. Those were known to be in use by the USAF by 1981, and the AMOS 1.6m is still in regular use for satellite imaging. I wonder because the outline of the solar array looks very sharp and regular to be an uncorrected image (Skylab wasn't any bigger than ISS...). Or they could have used video and "lucky imaging".

[John Kierein]

Skylab re-entered July 11, 1979.

http://www.answers.com/topic/skylab-2

It's doubtful that they used adaptive optics that early. And if they took the picture close to re-entry time, Skylab could have been pretty low.

I still think the classified pix were probably from orbit.