Skylab 3 reddish rotating object sighting near Skylab
1973 · Earth orbit, Skylab
Summary
During the Skylab 3 technical crew debriefing, Owen Garriott described a bright reddish object seen about a week before splashdown. Garriott said Jack Lousma first noticed it from the wardroom window, and the crew tracked it for 5 or 10 minutes. He called it "obviously a satellite in a very similar orbit to our own". He said it rotated with a period of almost exactly 10 seconds, judged from its brightness variation.
In a later section on visual sightings, Garriott gave the timing as about a week or 10 days before recovery. He said the object was much brighter than Jupiter or any of the other planets. The crew watched it for about 10 minutes until sunset, and it went into darkness about 5 seconds after the spacecraft. From that delay of 5 to 10 seconds the crew surmised it was not more than 30 to 50 nautical miles away. It moved no more than 10 to 20 degrees in the window. On page 5 the delay is given as 5 to 7 seconds.
Alan Bean said the crew never saw it again. Lousma said it never took the shape of an object and was always brighter than any other star or planet. Bean said the crew tried monitors on it but could not make it into anything other than a bright light. Garriott said that no one ever explained to the crew what satellite it was. He added that the crew would like its identification established, and that the timing was recorded on channel A. The excerpts record no identification.
A 1998 NASA correspondence package reproduces a 1976 article by James Oberg. Its page 25 carries a caption for photo SL3-118-2140, shot during the second manned Skylab flight at 1645 Zulu on day 263 of 1973 and listed as an unidentified object or satellite by the NASA Photo Evaluation Lab. The excerpt does not link that photo to the reddish object. Oberg's text on page 27 discusses a different Skylab photograph, taken on Conrad's June flight, and says it showed a Brazilian jungle airstrip.
What the files say
“It was obviously a satellite in a very similar orbit to our own.”
Page 5 →“What satellite it was and how it happened to end up in such a similar orbit, no one ever explained to us.”
Page 5 →“It was slowly rotating because it had a variation in brightness with a 10-second period.”
Page 8 →“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.”
Page 8 →“We tried monitors and everything on it but we could never make it into anything other than a bright light.”
Page 6 →“You'd think we would have seen it the next night or it would cycle by another time.”
Page 6 →
Also discussed in
Explanations in the record
What the documents themselves say the event was, as recorded. Not our assessment.
- Garriott stated the object was obviously a satellite in an orbit very similar to Skylab's. He said no one had told the crew which satellite it was. — Skylab crew debriefings: light flashes and objects (1973), page 5
- The crew inferred from the 5 to 10 second delay in its disappearance at sunset that it was no more than 30 to 50 nautical miles from Skylab. — Skylab crew debriefings: light flashes and objects (1973), page 8