Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story

Appendix: Alan Bean's In-Flight Diary

Appendix Alan Bean’s In-Flight Diary g¤. The first page of Bean’s diary exemplifies its author’s “artistic” handwriting. k • |• 55*#E The following is the complete text of the diary that Skylab ##•commander Alan Bean kept during his time on the space station. It is presented unexpurgated and largely unmodified, with the primary exception of formatting . Bean’s handwriting does not differentiate between capital and lowercase letters, and the diary included minimal use of punctuation. For the sake of readability, those issues have been addressed. Bean numbered the entry with the day of the year on which it was written , so the first entry, ¤u, for example, refers to the ¤uth day of the year, [ July }u™.¤u Launch Day (I am writing this early in the morning of day }¤—Could not sleep, C today, so thought I might catch up.) Slept well early tonight, took Seconal and hit the bed about  p.m., so did Jack and Owen. Don Lind had come around to pick up my things, brief case, clothes, gifts to take back to Houston—some to Sue and some to home—Some are in the isolation trailer in Houston which will stay locked up till we get back. Awakened on time by Al Shepard. He and Deke kept track of us the last few weeks more than usual. This has mixed blessings. Early morning urination in bottle and weighing in gym—seemed strange to see Paul Buchanan, Edward & Dee standing in the gym waiting. First there was the microbiological samples. Then physical—Then eat—We wore white terry cloth robes. No traditional sour balls for the launch crew. Looking back now, maybe we should have. Al Shepard rode in van as far as the Launch Control Center. I watched him because he held the 8J book—when he got up to get off, he forgot he had it and I had to ask. On the way he told us he was the last minute back up—he then mentioned Glenn having his suit at the suit room prior to Al’s first flight. k, ™ (engine noise and damn the machine starts to shake), , }, more and more violent shaking—it seems to want to go like a car spinning its wheels¤—God, and you feel it pull away from the launch site—vibration, rough jerking, much much feeling of an unleashed power house wanting to go skyward —almost the same feel in reverse when you step off the high diving 55*#E• |• k™ board—You can hear and feel the beast start to accelerate. Jack and Owen are spellbound, so am I for that matter. Lift off, tower clear, whew, that’s a big one, roll & pitch program. I call—my voice sounds 3%, don’t sound too nervous, that’s good—Jack and Owen 3%. }¤ Slept in the 3D: sleep compartments last night—Place not fully activated but better than :). Slept pretty good because I was so tired, and sorta sick to my stomach. Owen looked so-so but Jack looked real bad. Stuffed up head feeling present and will probably be with us the rest of the flight—Nose gets lots of buggers in it & when I blow it it expels blood. Dry climates like Denver do the same. May have had the straps too tight on the bunk last night. Breakfast in :), no water yet in the workshop—Not a pleasant get together—Nobody wanted to eat but knew we had to. No one wanted to think of the things we had to do today—I was behind with stowage, putting the rate gyros together (a last minute add on) and trouble shooting the condensate leak. In fact spent most of today responding to ground request for troubleshooting the leak—seemed disorganized—kept doing things too fast, causing delays, lost g¤% of my time today for things I should not have let loose. }} We are farting a lot but not belching much—Joe Kerwin said we would have to learn to handle lots of gas. Got to stop responding to ground so fast and just dropping what I am doing—causes us to run behind on the time line. Do not know just what to do about this. I am feeling good in the morning and between meals. Meals themselves tough to get through. Still losing a lot of things, too big a hurry. Wish the flight planners would...