Odyssey

## Odyssey Station

The Odyssey Space Station viewed from a departing Soyuz spacecraft in December 1980

Odyssey station logo

## Orbital Parameters

### Orbital Decay

3 km per month

The ***Odyssey*** space station was a space station in Low Earth Orbit, the first and only space station launched and operated solely by NASA. It served as a zero-g lab which was inhabited by volunteer kerbals. *Odyssey* was the predecessor to the Skylab Workshop Station, and was eventually evacuated and returned to Earth.

Originally known as **Skylab 1**, the name was changed to *Odyssey* upon the request by fans of the movie *2001: A Space Odyssey*.

## History and Operation

Shortly after the moon missions in 1974, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided to turn to the orbital Space Station program.

Plans and blueprints for the new US space station were developed by employees at the Johnson Space Center, where the task of construction handed over to SSPX for manufacturing. The architecture of the modules was designed by Raphael J. Chryslar, at the time the assistant senior space architectural manager at NASA; who would later go on to design Skylab II and future spacecraft. His firm – SSPX (Space Station Parts for eXploration) was such a success, international space agencies standardized the international design of his space station modules.

The space station - initially named Skylab I, had its elements completed in March 1975, and were shipped from the Chris Hadfield factory to Kennedy Space Center for loading in containers, which is housed in a special framework and fairing for launch.

Before this was done, the general public held a petition to change the name of the station to *Odyssey,* to honor the bestselling blockbuster at the time — *2001: A Space Odyssey* (released seven years prior). The urge was accepted, and on April 2 1975, Skylab-1 was changed to the *Odyssey* Space Station.

NASA launched *Odyssey* on a Saturn Nova rocket in September 1975, all in pre-assembled sections loaded in containers, and assembled via EVA robotic arm into shape. Its first crews arrived in mini Soyuz shuttles in batches of 40 volunteer kerbals to load up Odyssey to a max capacity of 95 crew. *Odyssey* had a large interior volume of 1340 m3 and had two large solar array pairs, several modern-looking laboratories, crew quarters and a large forward-facing observation cupola.

As *Odyssey* grew popularity, so did the morale of the kerbals aboard, which wanted to stay in space indefinitely.

However, *Odyssey* began to have problems, with a series of failed experiments, an on-board fan-heater fire, and the novelty fading – which resulted in less adequate funding to support future expeditions within 8 months of the station’s commissioning. To make matters worse, the general public and the international space agencies got sick of the lack of practicality and space activities on the station.

## Skylab II's image on Odyssey

Chryslar held a press conference on February 11 1976, to announce plans for the successor - the Skylab Workshop Station, also known as Skylab II, which launched on October 9th. Despite initial reluctance from space agency officials, the Skylab program proved to be a huge success, which resulted in funding being slimmed down dramatically as the public and the space agencies' interest in Skylab skyrocketed; leaving *Odyssey* somewhat neglected.

## Later life

By January 1979, most of the higher ranking volunteer kerbals were returned to Earth. Some left the agency, while the rest later launched on subsequent expeditions to Skylab; but this left 43 kerbals remaining on *Odyssey*, with no more science stuff being assigned, and the lack of amenities quickly made them bored. The only thing that kept them out of trouble was the views from cupola and science labs (with the leftover equipment). There were two greenhouse modules, which provided the station with self-sustaining food and oxygen.

The inhabitants of *Odyssey* amazingly were comfortable living on the station for 3 years and 87 days, until the space agencies decided to return them home.

## Station rescue and retirement

By November 28 1979, *Odyssey* aged significantly and became unable to support the crew as more and more systems failed. Macy Kerman finally announced via the radio that the Kerbals can no longer stay in space. To make matters worse, the station's orbital altitude has dropped dangerously close to the atmosphere to 173 km (due to extremely low density upper-atmospheric drag caused by solar wind) and that the station keeping thrusters have depleted their fuel. Since the station was in a different orbit to Skylab, an EVA evacuation to that station was not possible. They estimated that the station would re-enter the atmosphere on December 5, which caused a panic in Mission Control.

On December 1, 1979, NASA (with the collaboration of the European Space Agency) allocated $1 billion to send up two Soyuz rescue vehicles to evacuate the 43 remaining kerbals from the station (along with their possessions). The second phase of the rescue and retirement operation was to send up a robotic machine along with a pilot to disassemble the station's truss, retract its solar arrays and attach a gigantic inflatable heatshield to its front.

Two Russian Proton rockets launched the rescue craft and disassembly machine to *Odyssey* on Dec 2 and 3 respectively.

The first launch on Dec 1 failed, where the Proton rocket had insufficient thrust due to a second stage engine problem, fell back to Earth and blew up in the denser atmosphere, requiring the launch escape system to be activated. The crew were saved (after splashdown by emergency parachute), and a new rocket was hastily scrambled within a few hours, with a set of replacement engines. The second launch attempt was scheduled same time the next day.

The next launch attempt on Dec 2 was successful. The Soyuz - piloted by Bob, Bill and Jedediah Kerman (three veteran Moon mission crew) managed to dock and re-boost the station just enough to add an extra three days to the station's orbit life for evacuation. The second vehicle launched on December 3, and was successful.

The two vehicles docked to the *Odyssey* space station and the crew were immediately evacuated with all their belongings.

The remaining kerbals were very pleased to finally leave their 'tin can' and once boarded, the spacecraft un-docked from *Odyssey* for the last time on December 4 at 18:37 EST.

Meanwhile the disassembly craft approached, and Jedediah Kerman volunteered to assist in the operation. He went on EVA to un-bolt the truss and retract the solar arrays. Shipping containers brought up with the craft were used to store the external payloads, along with parachutes for splashdown. The inflatable ceramic blanket heatshield was attached, along with the de-orbit engines.

After 4 hours of work, the station had been reduced to its modular components, and the truss was folded and re-aligned longitudinally to the heatshield. He set the autopilot to manage the reentry and splashdown. Jed returned to his spacecraft with the other crew and left the vicinity. They returned to Earth on December 5.

### Reentry

The autopilot then fired the de-orbit engines, inflated the heatshield and the station re-entered the atmosphere in the afternoon on December 5 in the South Atlantic Ocean. The heatshield managed to survive and protect the station the 1600 degree heat during reentry. *Odyssey* splashed down after slowing down from 28,000 to 34 km/h in under 15 minutes, bringing an end to *Odyssey's* mission at last.

Finally several recovery barge ships were sent out to recover the station which was floating in the water, and used cranes to hoist it. They returned the station's components in its containers to the aerospace factory at the space center, where some of the modules were refurbished into moon base elements; a science lab from the station was rebuilt into the United States *Odyssey* laboratory (which was later installed on Skylab); while the remaining unusable components were recycled.

## Gallery

Odyssey launch atop a Saturn Nova rocketOdyssey shortly after launchOdyssey during assemblyEVAView of the Earth from one of the the science modulesKerbals enjoying themselves aboardObservation moduleVolunteer Kerbals excited to return to Earth in their soyuz passenger shipEarly expedition arrivalLaunch of the Odyssey retirement missionOdyssey with its disassembly spacecraft dockedJedediah Kerman moving parts into the containerOdyssey during reentryOdyssey floating in the ocean after splashdown, awaiting recoveryOdyssey upon splashdown