page_title: Skylab
section_title: Shower
hierarchical_section_title: Skylab / Shower
caption_attribution_description: English: A close up view of astronaut Jack R. Lousma, Skylab 3 pilot taking a hot bath in the crew quarters of the Orbital Workshop (OWS) of the Skylab space station cluster in Earth Orbit. This picture was taken with a hand-held 35mm Nikon camera. Astronaut Lousma, Alan Bean and Owen K. Garriott remained within the Skylab space station in orbit for 59 days conducting numerous medical, scientific and technological experiments. In deploying the shower facility the shower curtain is pulled up from the floor and attached to the ceiling. The water comes through a push-button shower head attached to a flexible hose. Water is drawn off by a vacuum system.
context_page_description: Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: SL-2, SL-3 and SL-4. Major operations included an orbital workshop, a solar observatory, Earth observation, and hundreds of experiments.
  Unable to be re-boosted by the Space Shuttle, which was not ready until the early 1980s, Skylab's orbit decayed and it disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979, scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.
context_section_description: Skylab had a zero-gravity shower system in the work and experiment section of the Orbital Workshop designed and built at the Manned Spaceflight Center. It had a cylindrical curtain that went from floor to ceiling and a vacuum system to suck away water. The floor of the shower had foot restraints.
  To bathe, the user coupled a pressurized bottle of warmed water to the shower's plumbing, then stepped inside and secured the curtain.  A push-button shower nozzle was connected by a stiff hose to the top of the shower. The system was designed for about 6 pints (2.8 liters) of water per shower, the water being drawn from the personal hygiene water tank. The use of both the liquid soap and water was carefully planned out, with enough soap and warm water for one shower per week per person.
  The first astronaut to use the space shower was Paul J. Weitz on Skylab 2, the first crewed mission. He said, "It took a fair amount longer to use than you might expect, but you come out smelling good". A Skylab shower took about two and a half hours, including the time to set up the shower and dissipate used water. The procedure for operating the shower was as follows:
  Fill up the pressurized water bottle with hot water and attach it to the ceiling
  Connect the hose and pull up the shower curtain
  Spray down with water
  Apply liquid soap and spray more water to rinse
  Vacuum up all the fluids and stow items
  One of the big concerns with bathing in space was control of droplets of water so that they did not cause an electrical short by floating into the wrong area. The vacuum water system was thus integral to the shower. The vacuum fed to a centrifugal separator, filter, and collection bag to allow the system to vacuum up the fluids. Waste water was injected into a disposal bag which was in turn put in the waste tank. The material for the shower enclosure was fire-proof beta cloth wrapped around hoops of 43 inches (110 cm) diameter; the top hoop was connected to the ceiling. The shower could be collapsed to the floor when not in use. Skylab also supplied astronauts with rayon terrycloth towels which had a color-coded stitching for each crew-member. There were 420 towels on board Skylab initially.
  A simulated Skylab shower was also used during the 56-day SMEAT simulation; the crew used the shower after exercise and found it a positive experience.
caption: Astronaut in the shower with curtain partially down, July 1973
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