Skylab mission again delayed

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33382, 14 November 1973, Page 17

Skylab mission again delayed

f.V.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) CAPE CANAVERAL, November 13.

A launch-pad engineer making an even more careful inspection than he was required to, discovered a second set of cracks in the Skylab 3 booster rocket yesterday, and the launching was immediately postponed again, this time until Saturday.

But it is doubtful whether Lieutenant-Colonels Gerald Carr and William Pogue, and Dr Edward Gibson will take off even then.

“The chances of a Saturday

launch are ‘iffy’ at best,” the Skylab programme manager, Mr William Schneider said. “We’re really not sure that we will be ready to go then." The next launching opportunity after Saturday is next Tuesday or Wednesday.. The new set of cracks, in aluminium rods which connect the first and second stages of the Saturn IB rocket, were found as a new set of eight tail-fins was being finally locked into place at the base of the booster. Because of 14 tiny cracks found earlier in the fins, the launching had already been postponed from last Sunday until Friday. “These cracks are not necessarily of the nature that would be required to be repaired, but their discovery has caused us to question additional material,” Mr Schneider said. “The launch engineers and technicians are going like blazes to check, using magnifying glasses, all parts of the rocket made of the same aluminium alloy as the rods and tail-fins.” Mr Schneider said that the new set of cracks would be repaired by putting another piece of aluminium bracing over them. If the launch-pad engineers found more structural deficiencies in the rocket, it might have to be moved, on a giant tractor, back to an assembly building for repairs, which would delay the launching for almost a month.