NASA-UAP-D007, Skylab Technical Crew Debriefing 1973

Official Conclusion

Unresolved for Skylab 3 object; Skylab 4 lights presumed to be Skylab debris or other satellites; Skylab 2 light flashes presumed to be cosmic particle retinal interactions

Official Description

Launched on May 14, 1973, Skylab was the United States’ first laboratory in space. From 1973 to 1974, the station was visited by three crews. This document contains excerpts from all three crews to visit the station. In the first excerpt taken from Skylab 1/2 [first crew] Technical Debriefing from June 30, 1973, highlights crew observations of light flashes. The second excerpt taken from Skylab 1/3 Technical Crew Debriefing from October 4, 1973, highlights two observations—a satellite in similar orbit and another object with a “reddish hue to it.” The final excerpt taken from the Skylab 1/4 Technical Crew Debriefing from February 22, 1974, highlights an observation of flashing lights outside Skylab. • Skylab 2 crew observation: o Page 23-20. [Science Pilot for Skylab 2, Joesph Kerwin] “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.” • Skylab 3 crew observations: o Page 7-4. [Science Pilot for Skylab 3, Owen Garriott] “We saw that satellite about a week before splashdown. That was one of the most unusual things that we saw and I guess Jack [Lousma] 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.” o Page 20-1. [Science Pilot for Skylab 3, Owen Garriott] “Jack [Lousma] first noticed this rather large red star out the wardroom window. Upon close examination, it was much brighter than Jupiter or any of the other planets. It had a reddish hue to it, even though it was well above the horizon.” • Skylab 4 crew observation o Page 7-8. [Commander for Skylab 4, Gerald P. Carr] “One other area of unusual events that we reported on the dump tapes was that on occasion we saw some lights flashing outside with very a definite motion relative to ours. We presumed that they were other pieces of Skylab, or possibly other satellites.”

Key Findings

• →Skylab 2 crew (Conrad, Kerwin, Weitz) all reported seeing internal light flashes, most likely cosmic ray/particle strikes on the retina, possibly correlated with the South Atlantic Anomaly.
• →Skylab 3 crew (Garriott, Lousma, Bean) observed a bright reddish rotating object in a very similar orbit for approximately 10 minutes; its identity was never explained to the crew and they formally requested identification.
• →The Skylab 3 object was estimated to be no more than 30-50 nautical miles distant based on its 5-7 second delay entering Earth's shadow relative to Skylab, and had a brightness variation with a 10-second rotation period.
• →Skylab 4 Commander Gerald Carr reported two or three sightings of flashing lights outside with definite relative motion, presumed to be Skylab debris or other satellites; one or two appeared to be tumbling.
• →No crew in any of the three debriefings concluded that the observed phenomena were anomalous beyond conventional explanations, though the Skylab 3 satellite remained officially unidentified at time of debriefing.

Extracted Entities