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Author
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Topic: Saturn vehicles and stages used for Skylab
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Explorer1
Member Posts: 208
From: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Registered: Apr 2019
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posted 04-24-2020 11:49 AM
  
There were two Skylab stations built from Saturn V S-IVB stages. The flown orbital workshop, Skylab 1 was constructed from the S-IVB stage of Saturn 212 (a Saturn IB launch vehicle).The back-up Skylab station was constructed from the S-IVB stage from Saturn 515 (a Saturn V vehicle). And Skylab 1 was launched on Saturn 513. The S-IVB stage of Saturn 513 wasn't needed for the launch, so it was removed and went untouched and replaced with the Skylab 1 station. I find it odd that an S-IVB stage from a Saturn IB was used to build Skylab 1 when the stage from Saturn 513 could have been used. Does anyone know why? Secondly, which of the remaining Saturn V vehicles would have served as the launch vehicle for the back-up Skylab station had plans gone forward to launch it? Would it have been Saturn 514 or 515? It seems to me that it would have made sense to simply use Saturn 515 since the back-up Skylab station had been constructed from Saturn 515's S-IVB stage. |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1502
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 04-26-2020 08:41 AM
Skylab was always going to be a Saturn IB S-IVB. For AAP, excess Saturn IB second stages were going to be the basis of wet workshops. When the decision to go dry was made, it still was going to be a Saturn IB S-IVB.The Saturn IB and V hardware was not "lying around" grouped together as vehicles. Any grouping of stages could have flown, they didn't have to be of the same mission serial number. When the 503 S-IVB blew up during testing, the 504 stage was renumbered 503N and this happened to all the stages up to 507. There was no need to fly the 515 S-IVB on the 515 S-II and S-IC. Usually, when flight rate is slower than production rate, it is easier to use the next vehicle off the production line than to use one built earlier but was put into storage. AS-212 was the last 200 S-IVB built, it was easier to get out of storage. AS-515 tanks were not completed at the time of the Skylab decision, so that is why it was the backup. A search of the Skylab chronology provided some of this info. Chronologies are great for learning what decisions were made and why. | |
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