NASA-UAP-D7-Skylab-Technical-Crew-Debriefing-1973.pdf

JSC-08053 
SKYLAB 1/2 
TECHNICAL 
CREW DEBRIEFING 
JUNE 30, 1973 
PREPARED BY 
TRAINING OFFICE 
CREW TRAINING AND SIMULATION DIVISION 
NOTICE: This document may be exempt from public disclosure under 
the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S. C. 552). Requests for its 
release to persons outside the U. S. Government should be handled 
under the provisions of NASA Policy Directive 1382 .2. 
Natwnal Aeronautics and Space Administration 
LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER 
Houston, Texas 

KERWIN 
(CONT'D) 
CONRAD 
Q,UERY 
KERWIN 
WEITZ 
:::oNRAD 
:IBRWIN 
Unusual or Unexpected Visual Phenomenon. 
We saw light flashes. 
I think all of us saw them. 
I saw them most often when I was 
in the sack at night with my eyes closed but awake naturally. 
They tended to wax and wane in frequency. 
Someone asked me if 
that was in conjunction with the South Atlantic anomaly. 
It 
may have been. 
I didn't have the pad with me at that time and 
I don't know. 
They were numerous at times - two or three per 
minute. 
Some of them to me were a spot or sunbursts. 
Some were streaks. 
The streaks, …

CONRAD 
Sometimes I'd be lying there with my eyes half closed, and I'd 
see a fire sensor wink. 
KERWIN 
And you'd have to be careful that you weren't confusing that 
with the fire flash. 
Once you've seen a few of each, there is 
question of which is which. 
They're not an hallucination. 
KERWIN 
We didn't feel it was operationally necessary for anybody to 
know about it right now. 
WEITZ 
I had a couple that I thought were cosmic particles. 
an entrance streak and an exit streak. 
I saw 
CONRAD 
Yes, I did too. 
WEITZ 
Where, bing-bing, it seemed like it was 
and then the other side. 
one si…

JSC-08478 
SKYLAB 1/3 
TECHNICAL 
CREW DEBRIEFING 
PREPARED BY 
TRAINING OFFICE 
CREW TRAINING AND SIMULATION DIVISION 
NOTICE: This document may be exempt from public disclosure 
under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U. S.C. 552). Requests 
for its release to persons outside the U.S. Government shou Id be 
handled under the provisions of NASA Policy Directive 1382 .2. 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER 
Houston, Texa,s 
OCTOBER 4, 1973 

BEAN 
LOUSMA 
GARRIOTT 
I did too. 
The sack would move over in the corner. 
Things we saw out the window. 
For example, we saw that satellite about a week before splash­
down. 
That was one of the most unusual things that we saw 
and I guess Jack noticed it looking out the window. 
This 
bright reddish object was out there and we tracked it for 
about 5 or 10 minutes. 
It was obviously a satellite in a very 
similar orbit to our own. 
It was rotating and had a period 
of almost exactly 10 seconds because you could see the bright­
ness vary with that period. 
We followed it until sunset and 
i…

BEAN 
You bet. 
We never saw it again. 
You'd think we would have 
seen it the next night or it would cycle by another time. 
Maybe it did and we weren't looking out the window. 
LOUSMA 
You might point out that it never did take the shape of an 
object but it was always brighter than any other star or 
planet in the night sky. 
It was much brighter. 
BEAN 
We tried monitors and everything 
make it into anything other than 
on it but we could never 
a bright light. 
LOUSMA 
In doing T002, I had on other occasions, at least once 
twice, seen other satellites although they appeared as 
points of…

20.0 
VISUAL SIGHTINGS 
LOUSMA 
Let's talk about visual sightings. 
You saw your way to the booster or 
Visual sighting no problem there. 
Any comments on countdown. 
you didn't see that. 
BEAN 
You might want to talk about 
orbit when Owen and Jack saw 
the visual sightings 
the satellite. 
on that 
LOUSMA 
Yes, let's go through countdown. 
countdown that were significant? 
away and all that kind of thing. 
Any visual sightings 
We saw the swing arm 
on 
go 
Powered Flight: 
I watched the booster protector cover go 
off and lots of flashes and debris and everything in every 
separation, but t…

GARRIOTT 
a reddish hue to it, even though it was well above the 
(CONT'D) 
horizon. 
The light from the Sun was not passing close to 
the Earth's limb at the time. 
We observed it for about 
10 minutes prior to sunset. 
It was slowly rotating because 
it had a variation in brightness with a 10-second period. 
As I was saying, we observed it for about 10 minutes, until 
we went into darkness, and it also followed us into darkness 
about 5-seconds later. 
From the 5- to 10-second delay in 
it's disappearance we surmised that it was not more than 30 
to 50 nautical miles from our location. 
From…