sl_v_bw_o_n (108-KSC-72P-428)
“The Skylab Orbital Workshop was mated with its Saturn V launch vehicle in the Vehicle Assembly Building today.”
The LAST Saturn V launch vehicle. Bittersweet & sad to contemplate.
Is that a covered/mothballed? stage laying on its side behind the truck? And something, vertically oriented, further behind that…with a domed apex? Maybe some ASTP parts & pieces still wrapped up?
I’d be willing to wager these are the two - S-IVB (maybe?) stages - that were placed in storage…that I recall seeing photos of here & there/now & then.
I would appear to be - I think - correct:
www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/001549.html
Credit: collectSPACE website
spaceflightblunders.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/saving-the-s...
Credit: ‘Spaceflight Blunders & Greatness’ website
The OWS exterior visible in this photograph is, for the most part, the side visible in the majority of my on-orbit photos taken by the first crew during the initial fly around inspection.
For reference, the long narrow white strip running up & down near the right ‘limb’ is the surviving solar wing. Many other features, fairings/protuberances, etc., can then be correlated in multiple photos.
And, for the truly discerning eye, note both the squarish, (with rounded corners) outlined area at the farthest left periphery of the OWS, and up/ forward of/from that, a smaller darker area/feature. The former, if I recall correctly, being an access panel, and the latter marking the location of a scientific airlock - the one used to deploy the initial parasol/sun shield.
The subject matter (space flight hardware), coupled with the exquisite satin sheen (featured on a number of black & white NASA photos during this period), the ‘sepia’ tone & amazing resolution make this photo amazing.
If Ansel Adams were to have photographed something in the VAB, this is what it would’ve looked like.
sl_v_bw_o_n (108-KSC-72P-428)
“The Skylab Orbital Workshop was mated with its Saturn V launch vehicle in the Vehicle Assembly Building today.”
The LAST Saturn V launch vehicle. Bittersweet & sad to contemplate.
Is that a covered/mothballed? stage laying on its side behind the truck? And something, vertically oriented, further behind that…with a domed apex? Maybe some ASTP parts & pieces still wrapped up?
I’d be willing to wager these are the two - S-IVB (maybe?) stages - that were placed in storage…that I recall seeing photos of here & there/now & then.
I would appear to be - I think - correct:
www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/001549.html
Credit: collectSPACE website
spaceflightblunders.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/saving-the-s...
Credit: ‘Spaceflight Blunders & Greatness’ website
The OWS exterior visible in this photograph is, for the most part, the side visible in the majority of my on-orbit photos taken by the first crew during the initial fly around inspection.
For reference, the long narrow white strip running up & down near the right ‘limb’ is the surviving solar wing. Many other features, fairings/protuberances, etc., can then be correlated in multiple photos.
And, for the truly discerning eye, note both the squarish, (with rounded corners) outlined area at the farthest left periphery of the OWS, and up/ forward of/from that, a smaller darker area/feature. The former, if I recall correctly, being an access panel, and the latter marking the location of a scientific airlock - the one used to deploy the initial parasol/sun shield.
The subject matter (space flight hardware), coupled with the exquisite satin sheen (featured on a number of black & white NASA photos during this period), the ‘sepia’ tone & amazing resolution make this photo amazing.
If Ansel Adams were to have photographed something in the VAB, this is what it would’ve looked like.