NASA-UAP-D007, Skylab Technical Crew Debriefing 1973

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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 should be handled under the provisions of NASA Policy Directive 1382 .2. Natwnal Aeronautics and Space Administration LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER Houston, Texas

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KERWIN 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 CONRAD Some of them to me were a spot or sunbursts. Some were streaks. The streaks, in my case, were less frequent than the bursts. Most of them were in my peripheral visual field. Very few in the central visual fieJ.d. I don't know why. Q,UERY You could isolate them to one eye, couldn't you? KERWIN No, I couldn't. WEITZ I would say mine were primarily in the left eye for some :::oNRAD You have to concentrate but you can determine they are in one :IBRWIN I did not. That was foolish of me but I didn't try. I'm sure they are in one eye.

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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. I saw an entrance streak and an exit streak. CONRAD Yes, I did too. WEITZ Where, bing-bing, it seemed like it was one side of the eyeball, and then the other side. CONRAD One night I remember that there was a long shot then it was blank then there was a long shot in rapid succession, of course, but very definitely in and out - or across the eye. KERWIN Medical Kits and IMSS. As far as adequate quantity of medica­ tion and supplies, I would guess we used about 0.01 percent of the available medication. I think this is something for me to sit down with the doctors and talk about. There is plenty of medicine up there for the Skylab missons. There is

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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

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BEAN I did too. The sack would move over in the corner. LOUSMA Things we saw out the window. GARRIOTT 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 it went out of sunlight just about 5 to 7 seconds after we did. It held its position nearly the same, in the wardroom window for that 10-minute interval although we could see it drift in relative positions slightly, maybe 10 to - 20 degrees during the course of that 10-minute interval. It was reddish in color even when we were well above the horizon. As we approached sunset, it turned more reddish, presumably because . of the sunlight change. What satellite it was and how it happened to end up in such a similar orbit, no one ever explained to us. And I would like to hear a few words from someone about that satellite.

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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 on it but we could never make it into anything other than a bright light. LOUSMA In doing T002, I had on other occasions, at least once or twice, seen other satellites although they appeared as star points of light. BEAN Let's talk about caution/warnings at night and in the daytime. I noticed at first when we did have caution/warnings in the daytime we all whistled up there real quick to see what was happening. Then as the mission wore on, we tended to just let whoever was closest take a look. Without the TACS on, there isn't a lot that can go on exc~pt rapid DELTA-P which sounds different than any of the other caution/warnings, particularly just a caution. I recommend to Jerry and his crew, and I'm sure that this recommendation will be hard to live by, that caution/warnings don't appear to be anything you have to hurry and resolve or stop doing your tasks to race up to the panel