How Skylab built a space tool from spare parts

Skylab 2: improvisation made procedural

Skylab 2’s first attempt to release the jammed solar-array wing failed because a strap holding the wing shut would not move. Paul Weitz tried a 4.5-metre pole fitted first with a shepherd’s hook and then a universal prying tool, while Joseph Kerwin held his legs and Charles Conrad steadied the command module against the forces they produced. Conrad’s verdict was blunt: “We ain’t gonna do it with the tools we got”^[1].

On June 4, 1973, NASA approved a new EVA procedure developed by a team led by Russell Schweickart. Controllers transmitted instructions to Skylab’s teleprinter, and the crew converted onboard materials into purpose-built repair equipment^[2].

For the first problem, they joined six 1.5-metre rods, mounted a cable cutter at the far end, and connected 6 metres of spare solar-shield rope to its pull rope. This allowed the cutter to be operated from 9 metres away. A waist tether anchored the assembly near the discone antenna, while the long pole doubled as a translation handrail^[3].

Engineers also suspected that the wing’s hydraulic deployment damper had frozen. The improvised Beam Erection Tether used ropes and hooks from waist tethers and the backup solar shield; because footholds were scarce, Conrad and Kerwin placed the tether over a shoulder so it restrained them against the hull while they strained upward to break the damper free^[4].

On June 7, their EVA succeeded: the panels extended and Skylab’s electricity meters jumped. The spacewalk lasted three hours twenty-five minutes^[5]. The chronology does not explicitly discuss inaccurate drawings, but its practical lesson is clear: the approved procedure had to fit the hardware as encountered, including actual reach distances, anchor points, and missing footholds, rather than relying on the original tool plan.