Skylab Restoration Project Status Report November 2006
We received news Friday that Skylab will not go indoors for the next 2 years. This leaves use out in the cold (literally). We are still on schedule to be completed with our restoration efforts by June 2007. In work now are efforts to understand how we can preserve Skylab while it remains outside for the additional year. We need to develop methods to keep the humidity down, water out, mold under control and the animals away. We have also been asked by the Space and Rocket Center to raise $20,000 to buy them a building to hold Skylab.
This is beyond our plan and well beyond what money we have raised to save the Skylab space station 1-G trainer. If you would like to donate $20,000 they will put your name, the name of your company, etc on the side of it forever. If you are interested please send me an email.
On the restoration front we successful closed the MDA to Airlock pressure hatch (the seals and latches still worked!) We removed several lockers and storage boxes from the MDA and scraped away a considerable amount of lose and pealing paint away. We found about 6 inches of rain on the roof of the 1st deck that we removed (we had a few good storms this past week). If not for our efforts to restore and protect the 1st deck and install a covering on it, that 6 inches of rain would be sitting in the bottom Skylab, in lockers, systems and on structures. Just as it did for over 7 years. Painting is behind schedule. We hope the painters will show up this week. This 1-g trainer is important, one of two left in the world. By June next year it will be the best.
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