Spacewalk drama

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33451, 5 February 1974, Page 13

Spacewalk drama

1 ’.\.z r. .1 -KcuKr—< opyayht (API CANAVI.RAI February 1 One ot the three American [astronauts, Dr Edward Gib- | son, was one jolt from a (crisis during the last space[walk of the Skylab 3 Mis >ion: a pin was pulled from his spacesuit where it was joined by its life-giving ; "umbilical cord" as he floated in space. Thirty pounds of pressure — one hard jerk — would have ripped out the line, containing air and other support systems, but Dr Gibson was wearing an emergency chest pack containing oxygen lor 30 nun , utes, which should have been long enough for him to ’reconnect the cord, or to [clamber to safety inside the (space station. | The vital pin was pulled Hoose by the nylon tether [anchored to the space station to prevent the astronaut I from soaring off into space land death. The final spacewalk by Dr Gibson and Lieutenant* Colonel Gerald Carr, lasting five hours and 15 minutes, brough* to a total of 148 hours and 28 minutes the amount ot time American astronauis have spent out* side their -paeecrafts ill space, or on the Muon, sima manned flight began in 1961. The spacewalkers success* .fully retrieved precious film [from telescope cameras and samples of materials exposed to space, and look (photographs of the Sun and ; Earth, and of the outside of the space station.