Good morning, Whitewater.
Thursday will bring cloudy skies, a slight chance of rain, and a high of sixty-five to Whitewater. Sunrise is 5:32 and sunset 8:10, for 14h 37m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 17.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
Quick update: I’ll have a restaurant-themed post today (the Thursday calendar slot for FW food & restaurant posts), and will move a reply to the WEDC’s Reed Hall to Friday, so that one post does not step on the other, so to speak. I’ll address Hall’s arguments (delivered in two separate statements) on 5.15.15. Hall deserves his own ignominious day.
Skylab as photographed by its departing final crew (Skylab 4)
On this day in 1974, America launches her first space station:
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA and was the United States‘ first space station. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 169,950 pounds (77 t).[1] Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the last two manned missions, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by ready to rescue the crew in orbit if it was needed.
The station was damaged during launch when the micrometeoroid shield separated from the workshop and tore away, taking one of two main solar panel arrays with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy. This deprived Skylab of most of its electrical power, and also removed protection from intense solar heating, threatening to make it unusable. The first crew was able to save it in the first in-space major repair, by deploying a replacement heat shade and freeing the jammed solar panels.
Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount, which was a multi-spectral solar observatory, Multiple Docking Adapter (with two docking ports), Airlock Module with EVA hatches, and the Orbital Workshop, the main habitable volume. Electrical power came from solar arrays, as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.
Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. The Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP) was used to view the Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended. Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it. However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia. Post-Skylab NASA space laboratory projects included Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir, and Space Station Freedom (later merged into the International Space Station).
On this day in 1953, Wisconsin experiences an extended beer strike:
1953 – Milwaukee Brewery Workers Go On Strike
Milwaukee brewery workers begin a 10-week strike, demanding contracts comparable to those of East and West coast workers. The strike was won when Blatz Brewery accepted their demands, but Blatz was ousted from the Brewers Association for “unethical” business methods as a result. The following year Schlitz president Erwin C. Uihlein told guests at Schlitz’ annual Christmas party that “Irreparable harm was done to the Milwaukee brewery industry during the 76-day strike of 1953, and unemployed brewery workers must endure ‘continued suffering’ before the prestige of Milwaukee beer is re-established on the world market.”
Here’s Puzzability’s Thursday game in their Prom Going series:
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This Week’s Game — May 11-15
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Prom Going
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We’re having a senior moment this week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the four letters in PROM, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
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Example:
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Julie Kavner’s cartoon alter ego; quality of the taste of venison
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Answer:
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Marge Simpson; gaminess
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What to Submit:
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Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Marge Simpson; gaminess” in the example), for your answer.
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Thursday, May 14
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