[MUSIC] Although in the orbit for only 175 days, the Salyut 1 proved that a space station could serve as a useful platform for a variety of technical and scientific discoveries. The Salyut 1 had the Orion 1s observatory telescope on board. The first telescope to be operated outside of Earth's atmosphere. For more information, see Early Space Stations. The next video shows the ill-fated crew of the Soyuz 11 mission exercising and performing physiological experiments aboard the Salyut 1 space station. >> [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] >> [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] [FOREIGN] [MUSIC] [FOREIGN] Soyuz 32 was a memorable mission for several reasons. Foremost, the crew set new records for the longest time in space. Their 175 days in the orbit, broke the previous record of 139 days experienced by the Soyuz 29 crew. One interesting observation, quails hatched on board grew slower than on Earth, and they lacked fully developed heads. Soyuz 33 was launched on April 10, 1979, and was to dock with the Salyut 6 space station. However, an engine failure during the docking maneuvers prevented a successful docking, and the Soyuz 33 crew was forced to return to Earth. This caused consternation among the Soyuz 32 crew. They were looking forward to visitors, after having spent nearly ten weeks alone. On August 15, the crew conducted an unscheduled spacewalk to remove an antenna that had become tangled on the outside of the station. Given the extended duration of the flight, the crew members were so concerned for their health because of their weakened condition that they left letters to their families in the Soyuz Return vehicle. They successfully departed the station on August 19, 1979, and landed safely, despite having lost 20% of their lower leg volume. Their condition served as a reminder of how important in-flight exercise protocols were to the health of the crew. [MUSIC] Soyuz 35 is of interest because flight engineer Valery Ryumin Spent 185 days in flight, just eight months prior to the launch on April 9th, 1980. Despite the record number of days in flight, the cosmonauts were reported to be playing tennis just three days after landing. Suggesting that their exercise and diet protocols were effective in preventing severe space flight deconditioning. Cosmonauts Ryumin and Leonid Popov also addressed spectators at the opening ceremonies of the 1980 Summer Olympics, held in Moscow. >> [FOREIGN] >> [APPLAUSE] >> [FOREIGN] >> [FOREIGN] >> [APPLAUSE] >> [FOREIGN] A camera mounted on an all terrain vehicle that was part of the Russian Search and Recovery Forces Team in Kazakhstan captured never before seen views of the landing of the Expedition 23 crew in the Soyuz TMA 17 spacecraft, aast of the town of Zhezkazgan on June 2nd, 2010. Soyuz commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineers TJ Creamer and Soichi Noguchi returned to the Earth after 163 days in space. [MUSIC] Launched on February 8, 1984, the Soyuz T-10 mission saw the first Indian to fly in space, and was punctuated by Rakesh Sharma telling Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, that from space, India looked better than the whole world. It was reported that Sharma practiced yoga during the flight as a method to counter the debilitating effects of space flight. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> The country's [INAUDIBLE] down as [INAUDIBLE] telecast the first Indian Cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma [INAUDIBLE] in space. >> [FOREIGN] >> [FOREIGN] >> Space. >> [APPLAUSE] >> The reason for a complete package of medical experiments on sky lab as opposed to the case in the earlier missions, where we did our medical stuff primarily before flight and then after flight, was that we were gonna fly much longer than we ever had before. We were going to quadruple the amount of time spent by a human being in space from 14 days to 56 days. And as it turned out, we did better than that, 184 days, on the third flight. The system we expected to change fastest in the body was the cardiovascular system, the heart, the blood vessels, the amount of blood in them and the way they operated. So our number one experiment to stress that system was called lower body negative pressure. Well, we didn't have gravity up there, so we couldn't stand up, and lower body negative pressure is a substitute for gravity, a way to fake the body out. And we were in that at four-day intervals throughout the mission, and from the very first time we were in it, it was obvious that there were indeed changes. But the encouraging thing was, that these symptoms were present the very first time we did the test, and they didn't get worse as time went on. There was another major dynamic test, or stress test, that we used to determine our condition in flight, and that was a bicycle odometer. You simply worked your heart, your muscles, and your lungs to maximum capacity to see whether they all played together in the same way in the absence of gravity. We found that our ability to exercise, our hearts ability to move blood around the body, the cells and muscles ability to extract oxygen from it, and all the processes that go into a maximum exercise were completely unaffected by zero gravity. >> It was also considered important to check the response of the vestibular system or the little balancing mechanism within the inner ear, and we did this by means of a rotating chair. But normally when you sit in this chair, and rotate on Earth, and move your head, it doesn't take very long before you experience motion sickness. However, up there we noticed that after we were there a few days it was possible to sit in this chair, and rotate almost all day long with no sensation or motion sickness at all. >> We took blood samples periodically throughout the flight mainly to make sure that the hemoglobin level in the blood was maintained at a proper level, and that the body was responding properly to lower levels of hemoglobin or red blood cells. To make sure that there was not some sort of subtle effect taking place in zero gravity that would leave us more or less open to infection, say. >> On our mission we elected prior to launch to increase the exercise period from an hour to an hour and a half. And this was done mainly on the basis of recommendations of the previous crew. They felt there just was not enough time for a good exercise period, that you really needed more time. We were also bringing up the little treadmill which was going to require time for use, so we ended up just going for an hour and a half per day exercising. And it appears that decision was a good one because we came back I think in a better condition, than it has in any other crew. >> The Skylab medical experiments were perhaps one of the most important things we did during the whole Skylab mission. We attempted to take a look at man as he reacted under long term weightlessness. Whether or not we can extrapolate that 84 days out through several hundred days. Incidentally, it takes something like 400 days for a typical Mars mission. We don't know right now, but it does indicate that we're on the right way to, and assuming that man can exist for long times at Zero-G. [SOUND] >> Atlantis cleared the tower. >> [SOUND] It looked like a great launch. [SOUND] Pretty soon the news from mission control began to get bad. There had been a G-shock and a sudden acceleration on the way up. They didn't know what caused it. >> Skylab space station, now in the orbit. Still some doubt in the minds of flight controllers here in Mission Control as to whether the main solar panels on the workshop have indeed deployed. >> One of them didn't respond at all, the other one, just a trickle of current that they could see. >> The planned 28-day mission is not possible without the workshop main solar panels. >> Meanwhile, the temperatures, both outside and inside of the workshop, began to rise. We have insufficient electrical power. We have temperatures that are out of control. It looks like the heat shield is gone. >> Sky Lab's biggest problem is heat from the Sun. Engineers quickly design a giant parasol. [MUSIC] After a ten day delay Kerwin, Conrad and Weitz finally launch NASA's first repairmen in space. >> T-minus seven, six, five, four, three. Engine sequence start two, one, zero. We have launch commit, and we have lift off. The clock is running, and Skylab has cleared the tower. [SOUND] All right, Houston Skylab. >> Eight hours after launch a rendezvous with Skylab and see the damage close up. >> Houston is now controlling. >> Roger Commie. >> A brief description it is suspected solar wing is gone. >> The crew has to enter Skylab to repair it. 270 miles above the Earth. Traveling at more than 17,000 miles an hour. Pete Conrad must perform a precise hard dock. [SOUND] >> Yay, we got a hard dock out of it. >> Woohoo! >> Way to go. >> We are progressing slow, but sure, and everything so far is working. >> It didn't smell very good, it had sort of a burned smell to it. >> The crew gets to work in Sky Lab's searing heat. The astronauts take turns trying to deploy the parasol. [MUSIC] >> Okay Houston, we had a great deployment as far as the rods clearing and everything and right at the moment. >> And then a spring was released and the fishing rods pulled up. >> Rod in and out. >> Go by it rapidly. >> It was successful and the temperatures began to come down. They came down from the 130's to the mid 80's. [MUSIC] >> But Skylab has an even bigger problem. One solar panel had been damaged during launch and still isn't working. A backup team works with a full-sized model of Skylab in a neutral buoyancy tank. Their solution is unprecedented in man's space flight. >> For the first time, crews going outside in their space suits to repair problems. That had never been done before. [MUSIC] >> Okay Houston, we're out there. We have the debris in sight. >> The other solar panel is jammed by a small piece of metal preventing it from opening. If they can cut it, the panel should unfold. >> There looks like enough room to get the cutter and I'm trying to help Joe stabilize. >> Just take it easy. >> That's it, you got it, right there. >> I pulled on the close the jaws rope. >> Pull that. >> We completed cutting the aluminum strip. [MUSIC] >> We did it. [LAUGH] And the best sight of the entire mission was that solar panel cover all the way up at 90 degrees. And the people on the ground were so pleased too because we were gonna get our power back. We were gonna be able to complete the mission. That was a good day. That was a very good day. [MUSIC] >> The space station is open for business. [MUSIC] Skylab is home to three crews, each setting new records for astronauts living and working in space. >> The feeling of being Peter Pan, or being your own space craft flying around the Earth is awesome and incredible. We were zipping around there as if we had never been other than weightless. >> Skylab crews logged more than 3,000 hours of scientific experiments and transform our understanding of the Sun. [MUSIC] Skylab is the first step toward the human habitation of space. [MUSIC] Jerry Carr, William Pogue, and Edward Gibson are Skylab's last crew. >> We demonstrated that you can go three months in space, and come back in good shape. That was a triumph. [MUSIC] >> The technology of the Apollo program not only carries astronauts to the Moon and back, but allows humans to live and work in space longer than ever before. [MUSIC] >> [SOUND] Skylab, we're reading you loud and clear over the man guard for eight minutes. >> Of course, not having gotten the plane out on our first attempt when we came up there. We really had about half of the electrical capability that we should have had. So it was very, very important to attempt to get that jammed solar panel out. >> A way to get you some time here. >> Roger. >> I think we probably wouldn't have had any Skylab missions, had it not been for the fact that man was able to get to the Skylab. And to make it habitable and to repair it in such a way that all of the missions were completely successful. >> So Joe tried and then we decided to tighten it up again and I try and I got under it, and away it broke. It let go in one big hurry, and there I was launched into space again, free floating hanging on the end of this string. Well by the time I got straightened out again and looked around, why there it was out and deployed. >> Thus very early, man's presence proved to be vital. It would be so in the mission that followed. >> At the proper time. But in areas where you need man's flexibility and his initiative. For instance, in the deployment of the solar wing on the first manned mission. And on a deployment of the sail that was used shade, provide thermal shading for the workshop on the second mission. And on our mission, where we had to reservice the coolant system. Or, where we had to actually get out and unjam, or move the filter wheel in the solar telescope cameras. But that's where you need man. You need man up there when you need some free wheeling judgement. And the tasks in space that should be assigned to man are the tasks that require him to use his mind and his abilities, his unique abilities which certainly can't be covered by programing a computer. >> High priority was also placed on a machine that would allow an astronaut to move freely about outside a spacecraft. Using the Skylab's upper dome area to explore this kind of flying characteristic. The astronaut uses a maneuvering unit which could shuttle him between spaceship and satellite. This will prove to be invaluable in space flights of the future. The most important package of scientific instruments on Skylab was the 12 ton telescope mount with its eight solar telescopes to permit a study of the Sun. The importance of these studies and benefits cannot be exaggerated. Especially when we consider the natural resources and energy crunch that is upon us today. The possibility of this research teaching us how to better harness this energy to power our cities and homes with an inexhaustible supply of clean, non-polluting power Becomes a major role. When people think about astronauts, they usually visualize them as high ranking military officers and daring test pilots, forgetting that some are also scientists with advanced degrees in physics, electrical and aeronautical engineering, and medicine. The value of men in space as true scientific partners. In space science research is most evident in the solar studies program. Because that allowed photographic film to be used, resulting in spectacular photographs being returned to Earth. Pictures such as this, can only be made from space above the earths atmosphere with a special instrument, a spectroheliograph notice the comparison of the size of Earth with the large eruption of the Sun's atmosphere. Other wavelengths were used to help follow changes in the Sun, apparent when this photo was analyzed. Such x-ray photos permitted further coronal study. Unveiling faces of the Sun never before seen by man. Earth bound observers, giving radically new knowledge of the sun and ways it may effect the Earth. Solar studies and stellar astronomy were features of all three Skylab missions and this solar flare, photographed on the third mission, was the most spectacular ever recorded. Radiating more energy than has been used by man since the beginning of civilization. The Sun has no energy crisis. It puts out the entire annual world energy demand thousands of times each second. This gives added meaning to the words of Wernher von Braun when he said, we hope one of these days to harness this energy on earth. [MUSIC] >> Having been beaten in the Space Race to land a man on the moon, the Soviet Union was in no way inclined to allow the United States to maintain preeminence in space. Shifting plans from landing on the moon, the Soviets turned to creating a permanently manned space station mission. And in 1971 Salyut 1 achieved that goal. despite the not unexpected growing pains associated with the Salyut Program, including the loss of the first Salyut crew. The Soviets, and now Russian Space Agency has been able to essentially maintain a continuous manned presence in space for nearly half a century. The United States Sky Lab Program, although short lived, was important in that like the Soviet's program, was able to demonstrate through a series of reasonable, well controlled experimental and medical monitoring that humans are able to function effectively in space for a long period of time while maintaining their overall health status. Both countries space station programs also conducted many experiments, including both Earth and outer space observations but it vastly increased our knowledge of the universe. [MUSIC] Without the success of these early tin can space stations, the success of the International Space Station would not be possible. [MUSIC]
