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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  Skylab footages: amount filmed on missions

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Author Topic:   Skylab footages: amount filmed on missions
carmelo
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Posts: 1089
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 07-19-2022 09:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I notice that compared to Apollo missions, are not many footages of Skylab mission around. How come?

For Skylab not many footages were made, or the most is still not available? Yet should be hundreds hours of footage considering the duration of the three missions.

For example, is possible that are not no complete EVA footage for Skylab?

Blackarrow
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Posts: 3483
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-20-2022 11:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
On the contrary, there is a great deal of Skylab audio-visual material available. A great starting point is the recent "Searching For Skylab" film. On the back cover of the Blu-ray I read "Hundreds of hours of video and audio recordings exist..."

There was apparently enough material available in 2005 to fill a 6-DVD set with the TV transmissions, onboard footage, development, launch and recovery footage, but Spacecraft Films never released the set.

I do find it odd that nobody has (to the best of my knowledge) scanned and uploaded the numerous Skylab images onto the internet. I can quickly find the vast majority of Apollo images in high definition, but I would be hard pressed to find more than a sample of (mostly low-definition) Skylab images. If someone else knows of sources that have escaped my notice, please let us know!

Jim Behling
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Posts: 1732
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 07-20-2022 11:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by carmelo:
For example, is possible that are not no complete EVA footage for Skylab?
Yes, because there was no remote controlled camera like for Apollo. Look at Apollo 9 or Gemini EVA coverage for equivalent coverage.

Dwight
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Posts: 605
From: Germany
Registered: Dec 2003

posted 07-21-2022 11:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dwight   Click Here to Email Dwight     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am the director of Searching for Skylab. Blackarrow is correct, we have hundreds of hours of Skylab footage in our archive.

Approximately 85% of all TV footage from SL-1 through SL-4 was acquired by our research team. Additionally we obtained new scans of a good portion of the 16mm footage that exists, and it is only transfer costs that prohibit general access to it.

It is no secret that Skylab is no where near as popular as, say Apollo 11, and so in the nearly 50 years since, few people have required access to this material. At approximately $800 per film reel, the costs are prohibitive. In order to keep costs within reason, I privately purchased approximately 40 reels of TV kinescope 16mm copies.

I originally also acquired a lot of footage in order to facilitate research for Live TV From Orbit, which chronicled the development on TV systems by NASA, post-Apollo.

As far as the photographs go, JL Pickering has released outstanding DVD sets with a good deal of Skylab photographs on them. Each mission is adequately represented, albeit not completely. I also have nearly all photographs but only in 640 line resolution. EREP Earth photographs are available on line, and all are available.

Additionally, regarding Jim's statement about televised EVAs. These were in part televised, but the logistics of camera setup proved to be more a hindrance than a benefit. However, enough footage exists of the spacewalks.

A fascinating side-note is that a remote camera was planned for Skylab, which would have been attached to the T-027 Experiment telescope arm. This was all ditched when it became necessary to use the Scientific Airlock Port to house the parasol deployment rod. Indeed a cS member purchased the training lens for this camera which was mistakenly described as the Apollo GCTA lens.

carmelo
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Posts: 1089
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 07-21-2022 01:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Which is the best EVA footage available, and to which Skylab mission?

Dwight
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Posts: 605
From: Germany
Registered: Dec 2003

posted 07-21-2022 05:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dwight   Click Here to Email Dwight     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
My favourite, just because of their discussion, is the solar panel EVA from SL-2. It is with Joe Kerwin and Pete Conrad. It is in the Searching for Skylab film.

Blackarrow
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Posts: 3483
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-21-2022 06:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I agree - it is certainly the most important EVA footage of Skylab, as the bid to free the solar wing HAD to succeed or Skylab would have been, at least, heavily curtailed. I remember watching part of it live on TV and hearing an uncharacteristically tetchy Pete Conrad telling his back-up, Rusty Schweickart: "It's not a hand-hold I need, Rusty, it's a FOOT-hold."

Aesthetically, I would say the best footage is of the second crew assessing the condition of Skylab after they reached orbit. The Conrad mission's sunshade "fluttering in the breeze" caused by the Bean mission's RCS thrusters is a sight to behold. On the final mission, the movie camera looks down from the ATM at an astronaut dwarfed by the bulk of the Skylab workshop. Great stuff.

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