Earth and Space News: Skylab 3 first space spider web 1973

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Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Space Spider Arabella Logged 24 Million Miles in 858 Orbits via Skylab

Summary: From July to September 1973, space spider Arabella logged 24 million miles in 858 orbits via Skylab, the first United States space station.

Lexington High School student Judith S. Miles discusses her proposed Skylab experiment, Web Formation in Zero Gravity, during a design review of the experiment’s equipment; Marshall Space Flight Center’s Henry Floyd (left) and Keith Demorest (right); Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama; Aug. 21, 1972: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Public Domain, via Internet Archive

Space spider Arabella logged 24,500,000 miles in 858 orbits of Earth from July to September 1973 via Skylab, the first United States space station.

Arabella and another common cross spider (Araneus diadematus), Anita, flew aboard Skylab as participants in experiment ED52, Web Formation in Zero Gravity. The experiment was proposed by Judith S. Miles, a student at Lexington High School in Massachusetts. The mission’s three-astronaut crew comprised fourth moonwalker Alan Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018) as Commander and first space flight astronauts Owen Garriott (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019) and Jack Lousma (born Feb. 19, 1936) as scientist-pilot and mission pilot, respectively.

The Skylab 3 mission, designated as SL-3, launched Saturday, July 28, 1973, at 11:10:50 Coordinated Universal Time (7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) via the Saturn IB (one B) launch vehicle from east central Florida’s Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral since Oct. 9, 1973). The mission’s Apollo command and service module (CSM) docked at Skylab at 19:37:00 UTC (3:37 p.m. EDT).

Arabella received recognition as the first spider to spin a web in space with discovery of a “rudimentary web” Monday, Aug. 6. The previous day, Sunday, Aug. 5, Owen Garriott had resorted to shaking Arabella’s transportation vial in order to relocate the reluctant spider into a specially constructed screened cage. Arabella displayed disoriented movements upon entry into the cage. The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center’s Skylab Student Project Report, released August 1974, observed: “Arabella bounced back and forth moving erratically in a swimming motion before she affixed herself to the screen covering on the cage surface.”

On Tuesday, Aug. 7, Arabella’s first web was noted as complete, although its construction was irregular. On Monday, Aug. 13, Owen Garriott removed half of Arabella’s web. Arabella ingested the remainder but displayed no interest in building a replacement.

After the scientist-pilot plied her with water, Arabella competently set about building a second web. The experiment’s protocol sought three complete webs from one spider. Accordingly, on Tuesday, Aug. 21, her second complete web was entirely removed from the apparatus.

The next day, Wednesday, Aug. 22, Arabella’s third spun-in-space web adorned the cage. The last web that Arabella spun in space “. . . was pronounced to be her best to date . . .,” according to the MSFC Skylab Student Project Report.

Arabella’s last two webs revealed her competent adjustment to weightlessness. Her movements also attested to her confident accommodation to her new environment. In their spring 1976 analysis of the Skylab 3 web experiment, German pharmacologist Peter N. Witt (born 1918), a specialist in web formation sensitivity to drugs, and four co-authors recalled footage from a CBS Evening News program of Aug. 28, 1973. Arabella was seen to run “very competently along the strands” of her web as she sought “to escape from the astronauts” (page 120).

Arabella’s reluctance to leave the cage contrasted dramatically with the disinterest in entering the cage that she had displayed three weeks earlier. On Sunday, Aug. 26, she was returned to her transportation vial, where she remained for the rest of the mission.

Anita replaced Arabella in the cage and dutifully spun three webs over the next three weeks. Anita’s web formation and movements mirrored Arabella’s experiences as the second spider to spin webs in space transitioned from clumsiness to comfortableness. Skylab 3 mission’s web formation experiment ended Sunday, Sept. 16, with the sad discovery of Anita’s demise in the cage. Her body was returned to her transportation vial.

Apollo CSM 117 undocked from Skylab Tuesday, Sept. 25, 1973, at 11:16:42 UTC (7:16 a.m. EDT). The command module’s splashdown in the northeastern Pacific Ocean occurred at 22:19:51 UTC (6:19 p.m. EDT).

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report noted: “Upon return to earth Arabella was found to have expired also.” The report identified “signs of dehydration” as “the only visible evidence of cause of their demise.”

Dr. Witt et al. found “thirst and starvation” as likely contributors to the spiders’ deaths. Pre- and post-flight weights for Arabella were detailed as 180 milligrams (mg) and 103 mg, respectively. Anita’s weight plummeted from 210 mg pre-flight to 50 mg at death.

In 1974, NASA transferred Arabella’s and Anita’s remains to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Anita’s remains, enclosed in a formalin-filled plastic vial, are displayed in the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Northern Virginia. Arabella’s vial-enclosed remains are currently displayed at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, north central Alabama.

The takeaways for space spider Arabella, who logged 24 million miles in 858 orbits via the Skylab space station are that the common cross spider spun space’s first web, that she competently overcame the disorienting effects of the unfamiliar environment of weightlessness and that she apparently died after the orbital flight part of the Skylab 3 mission.

Arabella (right) and Anita (left), the first and second spiders, respectively to spin webs in spaceAnita, the second spider to spin a web in space; Arabella is currently displayed at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, north central Alabama; Anita may be seen at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, in Chantilly, Northern Virginia: NASA Skylab @NASA_Skylab, via Twitter July 11, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

All About Space ‏@spaceanswers. “#DidYouKnow? Arabella the spider spun the first web in space as part of an experiment on the '70s #Skylab 3 mission.” Twitter. July 5, 2014.
Available @ https://twitter.com/spaceanswers/status/485483308890218496

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Caswell, Kurt. Laika's Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog. San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press, 2018.

Gamache, Martin. “Niger (1999).” Arachnids on Stamps. Oct. 27, 2008.
Available @ http://arachnidstamps.blogspot.com/2012/02/niger-scorpions.html

Hitt, David; Owen Garriott; and Joe Kerwin. Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story. Featuring the In-Flight Diary of Alan Bean. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books/about/Homesteading_Space.html?id=sR5Cm_zeIekC

Inside Space ‏@GoInsideSpace. “RT @spaceanswers: #DidYouKnow? Arabella the spider spun the 1st web in #space as an experiment on the '70s #Skylab 3.” Twitter. July 5, 2014.
Available @ https://twitter.com/GoInsideSpace/status/485494450609590272

Marriner, Derdriu. "Arabella and Anita Spun First Space Webs in August 1973 at Skylab." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/arabella-and-anita-spun-first-space.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "First Web in Space Was Spun in 1973 by Common Cross Spider Arabella." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/first-web-in-space-was-spun-in-1973-by.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 22, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/fourth-moonwalker-alan-bean-commanded.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Did His Last EVA at Skylab Sept. 22, 1973." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/09/fourth-moonwalker-alan-bean-did-his.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma Did Second EVA Aug. 24, 1973, at Skylab." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/owen-garriott-and-jack-lousma-did.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Astronaut Wives Pranked Spouses With Unofficial Mission Patch." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-astronaut-wives-pranked.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Captured Dramatic Solar Prominences in August 1973." Earth and Space News. Wednesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-mission-patch-emphasized-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylab 3 Mission Patch Emphasized Earth, Sun and Medical Themes." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-mission-patch-emphasized-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Skylabbers Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma First Spacewalked Aug. 6, 1973." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/skylabbers-owen-garriott-and-jack.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Space Spider Anita Died Sept. 16, 1973, During Skylab 3 Mission." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/09/space-spider-anita-died-sept-16-1973.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Three African Postage Stamps Honored Astrocat Félicette’s 1963 Flight.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 5, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/three-african-postage-stamps-honored.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Two Mummichog Minnows Became First Fish in Space in 1973 Via Skylab 3.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 29, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/two-mummichog-minnows-became-first-fish.html

Mars, Kelli, ed. “Skylab 3: A Record 59 Days in Space.” NASA > NASA History. Sept. 25, 2018.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/skylab-3-a-record-59-days-in-space

NASA Content Administrator. “Judith’s Web -- Student Experiment Aboard Skylab 3.” NASA > NASA Missions A-Z > S > Skylab. March 23, 2008.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_629.html

NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. “C. Zoology. 1. ED52 -- Web Formation.” MSFC Skylab Student Project Report: 38-46. NASA Technical Memorandum TM X-64866. NASA Skylab Program Office. August 1974.
Available @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “Web Formation -- Skylab Student Experiment ED-52.” Jan. 1, 1973.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MSFC-9513727

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Public Affairs Office. “Skylab Operations Summary.” NASA/Kennedy Space Center > Space Flight Archives > Skylab > Program Overview.
Available @ https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/skylab/skylab-operations.txt

NASA Skylab ‏@NASA_Skylab. “In addition to being the #Skylab reentry anniversary, it’s also #AllAmericanPetPhotoDay, so here’s a shout-out to Skylab Space Spiders Anita and Arabella! http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-120312a.html . . .” Twitter. July 11, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NASA_Skylab/status/1017068570914840580

National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution @airandspace. “Today in 1973: The Skylab 3 mission ended as astronauts Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma and Alan Bean splashed down in the Pacific. A common Cross spider, 'Anita' flew on Skylab 3 and participated in a web formation experiment suggested by a high school student. See Anita (pictured here) http://ow.ly/pdgpD and her test cage http://ow.ly/pdgzd at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.” Facebook. Sept. 25, 2013.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/airandspace/photos/a.390621412796/10151666717932797/

Pearlman, Robert. “Space Spider Lands in Smithsonian Display.” collectSpace > News. Dec. 3, 2012.
Available @ http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-120312a.html

Richard Garriott ‏@RichardGarriott. “Replying to @ThangCZ @mobilesinper and 2 others Here is the spider that will track you down in space! Hello Arabella.” Twitter. March 28, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/RichardGarriott/status/846744607765528576

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Spider, ‘Arabella,’ Skylab 3.” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum > Collections.
Available @ https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/spider-arabella-skylab-3

Summerlin, Lee B., ed. “Web Formation.” Skylab, Classroom in Space, Part II, Chapter 3 Studies of the Central Nervous System: 41-48. Prepared by George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. Washington DC: Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1977.
Available @ https://history.nasa.gov/SP-401/ch3.htm

Wade, Mark. “Saturn IB.” Astronautix > Alphabetical Index > S.
Available @ http://www.astronautix.com/s/saturnib.html

Wade, Mark. “Skylab 3.” Astronautix > Alphabetical Index > S.
Available @ http://www.astronautix.com/s/skylab3.html

Whiting, Melanie, ed. “Skylab 3: Return to Skylab.” NASA > Topics > NASA History. July 25, 2018. Last updated July 30, 2018.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/skylab-3-return-to-skylab

Witt, Peter N.; Mabel B. Scarboro; Rubenia Daniels; David B. Peakall; and Raymond L. Gause. “Spider Web-Building in Outer Space: Evaluation of Records From the Skylab Spider Experiment.” Journal of Arachnology, vol. 4, issue 2 (Spring 1976): 115-124.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52939706

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

First Space Spiders Arabella and Anita Spun Very Fine Webs for Skylab

Summary: First space spiders Arabella and Anita spun very fine webs for Skylab 3 mission, which operated July to September 1973 at the Skylab space station.

(left) steps in web formation by common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) and (right) completed web; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 43: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS

First space spiders Arabella and Anita spun very fine webs for Skylab 3 mission, which was conducted from Saturday, July 28, to Tuesday, Sept. 25, 1973, as NASA’s second manned mission to Skylab, the first United States space station.

The two common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) were transported to the Skylab space station as participants in experiment ED52, Web Formation in Zero Gravity. They were housed in separate transportation vials for the mission. They were assigned separate shifts in the experiment’s screened observation cage for web formation.

Arabella reported reluctantly for web-spinning duty first on Sunday, Aug. 5. The mission’s scientist-pilot, Owen Garriot (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019), had to resort to shaking Arabella’s vial in order to transfer her into the web-formation cage. The three webs that she completed between Monday, Aug. 6, and Wednesday, Aug. 22, reflected her trajectory from disorientation to orientation in weightlessness.

Arabella’s session in the web formation cage ended Sunday, Aug. 28. She mirrored her reluctant entry of Aug. 6 into the cage with a reluctant exit.

After Arabella’s return to her transportation vial, Anita’s vial was placed in position on the web formation cage. A videotape and 16 mm film recorded Anita’s public encounter with weightlessness. Skylab, Classroom in Space, edited by Lee B. Summerlin and published by NASA in 1977, noted: “She, too, had to be forcibly ejected from her vial and, in fact, had to be picked off Garriott’s arm before she could be induced to ‘swim’ into place on the side of her cage” (page 47).

As with Arabella, Anita adjusted to weightlessness. Her three successive webs attested to her confident transformation of the unfamiliar environment of weightlessness into a familiar, workable environment.

Unfortunately, Anita’s space journey ended Sunday, Sept. 16, when Garriott “. . . found her dead in the cage. The dead spider was transferred to her launch vial for return to Earth.”

Arabella also did not survive the mission. After splashdown Tuesday, Sept. 25, Arabella was found dead in her transportation vial.

Prior to the start of the Skylab 3 mission, Arabella and Anita had spun pre-flight webs to serve as controls for their in-flight webs. Marshall Space Flight Center’s (MSFC) Skylab Student Project Report, published by NASA in 1974, observed that after the mission’s completion: “Examination of the returned web samples indicated that the thread spun in flight was significantly finer than that spun pre-flight giving positive evidence that the spider utilized a weight sensing organism to size her thread” (page 43).

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report noted the availability of “. . . 43 frames of 35mm film and several hundred feet of 16mm film (TV converted to film and conventional movie film) . . .” for analysis by the experiment’s student investigator, Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts, and her MSFC science adviser, Raymond L. Gause (page 46). Pre-flight data included five web photographs, of which four were spun by Arabella and one was built by Anita, according to German pharmacologist Peter N. Witt (born 1918) and four co-authors in their Skylab 3 web experiment analysis, published in the Journal of Arachnology’s spring 1976 issue.

The MSFC Skylab Student Project Report described the steps taken by female common cross spiders to spin their daily, pre-dawn webs. The web starts with a rudimentary structure, a bridge and frame, to which radial threads are added. A temporary spiral emanating from the web’s hub, or central region, gives the gauge for the distance around the hub, which, in turn, informs “. . . the amount of silk required to complete the web and establishes the mesh size” (page 38). The web’s “sticky or catching portion” requires a construction of a signal thread in a “free section . . . from the spider’s retreat to the limb of the web” as a prey presence alert (page 38). The web’s elements generally comprise “30 to 40 radials and 25 to 35 spiral turns.” Dr. Witt et al. noted the spiders’ inclusion of prey traps even “under the very strange conditions of Skylab” (page 117).

The takeaways for first space spiders Arabella’s and Anita’s very fine web-spinning for the Skylab 3 mission are that the two common cross spiders considered weightlessness by resizing their threads and that their space webs’ inclusion of a sticky trap also conformed with their Earth webs’ prey-catching purpose.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left) steps in web formation by common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) and (right) completed web; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 43: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

“Anita proved that she, too, could produce almost Earth-like webs once she had adapted to weightlessness.”; L.B. Summerlin, Skylab: Classroom in Space (1977), page 49: Public Domain, via NASA NTRS @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

For further information:

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Caswell, Kurt. Laika's Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog. San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press, 2018.

Kelly, Michelle. “Alan L. Bean Oral History Interviews.” NASA Johnson Space Center History Portal > NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. June 23, 1998.
Available @ https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/BeanAL/beanal.htm

Marriner, Derdriu. “Arabella and Anita Spun First Space Webs in August 1973 at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/07/arabella-and-anita-spun-first-space.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “First Web in Space Was Spun in 1973 by Common Cross Spider Arabella.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/first-web-in-space-was-spun-in-1973-by.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 22, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/fourth-moonwalker-alan-bean-commanded.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma Did Second EVA Aug. 24, 1973, at Skylab.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/owen-garriott-and-jack-lousma-did.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylab 3 Astronaut Wives Pranked Spouses With Unofficial Mission Patch.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-astronaut-wives-pranked.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylab 3 Mission Patch Emphasized Earth, Sun and Medical Themes.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/07/skylab-3-mission-patch-emphasized-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Skylabbers Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma First Spacewalked Aug. 6, 1973.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/08/skylabbers-owen-garriott-and-jack.html

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “Web Formation -- Skylab Student Experiment ED-52.” Jan. 1, 1973.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MSFC-9513727

Summerlin Lee B., ed. Skylab, Classroom in Space: 41-48. Prepared by George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA SP-401. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1977.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reports Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19770022245.pdf

Zahl, Paul A. “What’s So Special About Spiders?” National Geographic, vol. 140, no. 2 (August 1971): 190-219.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Fourth Moonwalker Alan Bean Commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973

Summary: Fourth moonwalker Alan Bean commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973 for NASA’s second manned mission to the first United States space station.

Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot Russell “Rusty” Schweikart (back to camera) and another training officer (left background) wear surgical masks as Skylab 3 mission’s scientist-pilot Owen Garriott (center), with mock-up of trunnion plug plate, Commander Alan Bean (center background) and mission pilot Jack Lousma (center right) participate in prelaunch training at Johnson Space Center, Houston, Harris County, Southeast Texas; Saturday, June 30, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library

Fourth moonwalker Alan Bean commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973 for NASA’s second manned mission to Skylab, the first United States space station.

The Skylab 3 mission launched Saturday, July 28, 1973, from Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral since Oct. 9, 1973) in east central Florida at 11:10:50 Coordinated Universal Time (7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Saturn IB launch vehicle carried the crew and mission paraphernalia in Apollo CSM (command and service module) 117.

Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018) headed the mission’s three-astronaut crew as commander. The mission marked the first spaceflights for scientist-pilot Owen Kay Garriott (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019) and mission pilot Jack Robert Lousma (born Feb. 29, 1936).

CSM 117 sheltered a multi-species cargo. The three astronauts shared the module with Anita and Arabella, a pair of common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus); six pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris); 180 fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) pupae; two mummichog minnows (Fundular heteroclitus); and 50 minnow fish eggs.

Anita and Arabella participated in the mission’s experiment on web formation in zero gravity. Their presence in Skylab 3 marked the first arachnid (Ancient Greek: ἀράχνη, arákhnē, “spider”) journey to space. Arabella debuted the first made-in-space web during Skylab 3. Anita is famed as the second spider to spun a web in space.

The NASA-conducted experiment was proposed by Judith S. Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts. The high schooler qualified as one of 25 national finalists in NASA's Skylab Student Project competition.

The pocket mice and fruit flies (also known as vinegar gnats) were involved in circadian rhythm experiments. The mission’s Circadian Periodicity Experiment (CPE) unit included separate housings for the pocket mice and the fruit flies. NASA Ames Research Center’s 1995 report, Life Into Space, acknowledged: “Unfortunately, about 30 hours after launch a power failure occurred and resulted in the loss of both experiments” (page 80).

The two mummichog minnows boarded the Skylab 3 mission as the first fish in space. The two minnows learned to orientate themselves in the unfamiliar environment of weightlessness.

The space fish population burgeoned to 48 during the mission with the hatching of all but two eggs. The fish fry emerged from their eggs with innate orientations to their habitat in space.

Three spacewalks, known as extravehicular activity (EVA), took place during the Skylab 3 mission. Astronauts Garriott and Lousma experienced their first spacewalk during the mission’s first extravehicular activity (EVA 1), which began Monday, Aug. 6, 1973, at 17:30 UTC (1:30 p.m. EDT). EVA 1 ended six hours 31 minutes later, Tuesday, Aug. 7, at 00:01 UTC (8:01 p.m. EDT, Monday, Aug. 6).

After their fledgling spacewalk, the duo became veterans in their outing for the mission’s second spacewalk (EVA 2). Their second spacewalk began Friday, Aug. 24, at 16:24 UTC (12:24 p.m. EDT). They completed the spacewalk four hours 31 minutes later, at 20:55 UTC (4:55 p.m. EDT).

Scientist-pilot Garriott claimed participation in all three of the mission’s spacewalks. He joined Commander Bean for EVA 3, which began Saturday, Sept. 22, at 11:18 UTC (7:18 a.m. EDT) and ended two hours 41 minutes later, at 13:59 UTC (9:59 a.m. EDT). With EVA 3, the Skylab 3 mission’s outside time totaled 13 hours 43 minutes.

The Skylab 3 mission’s third spacewalk numbered as Commander Bean’s third and last career extravehicular activity. He had conducted his first two extravehicular activities on the surface of the moon as the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 12. The Apollo 12 mission represented the United States Apollo program’s sixth manned flight and succeeded Apollo 11 as the second Apollo mission to land on Earth’s moon. With his first lunar walk, Nov. 19, 1969, Bean became the fourth moonwalker. The Apollo 12 mission’s commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr. (June 2, 1930-July 8, 1999), preceded him onto the lunar surface.

The Skylab 3 mission undocked from the space station Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 11:16:42 UTC (7:16 a.m. EDT). CSM 117 splashed down in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, approximately 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) southwest of San Diego, southwestern California. Splashdown happened at 22:19:51 UTC (6:19 p.m. EDT), 11 hours 3 minutes 9 seconds after CSM 117’s undocking. Retrieval of the command module and the crew by the recovery vessel, the USS New Orleans, occurred 42 minutes after splashdown, according to the Skylab Mission Evaluation Team's Skylab Mission Report Second Visit (1974: 2-2).

The takeaways for fourth moonwalker Alan Bean, who commanded Skylab 3 July to September 1973, are that his Skylab 3 spacewalk numbered as his third and last career extravehicular activity and that, under his command, the first fish and spiders reached and lived in space and also the first made-in-space web was spun.

Skylab space station close-up view from Skylab 3 Command and Service Module (CSM) prior to docking; photographed with hand-held 70mm Hasselbad camera using a 100mm lens and SO-368 medium speed Ektachrome film; July 28, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Skylab space station close-up view from Skylab 3 Command and Service Module (CSM) prior to docking; photographed with hand-held 70mm Hasselbad camera using a 100mm lens and SO-368 medium speed Ektachrome film; Saturday, July 28, 1973: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-sl3-114-1683

For further information:

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Caswell, Kurt. Laika’s Window: The Legacy of a Soviet Space Dog. San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press, 2018.

Compton, W. (William) David; and Charles D. Benson. Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab. The NASA History Series. NASA SP-4208. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Branch, 1983.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19840017669/page/n4

Day, Dwayne. “Outpost in the Sky: Skylab, the NASA Mission Reports.” The Space Review. June 26, 2017.
Available @ http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3270/1

Johnson, David Samuel. “The First Fish in Orbit.” Scientific American > Guest Blog. Dec. 22, 2016.
Available @ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-first-fish-in-orbit/

Lindberg, R. (Robert) G.; and P. (Page ) Hayden. Research on the Properties of Circadian Systems Amenable to Study in Space. NASA CR 137,523. Hawthrone [sic] CA: Northrop Research and Technology Center Corporate Laboratories, June 1974.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reporters Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740022376.pdf

NASA Ames Research Center. “Chronobiology of Pocket Mice (S071).” NASA Life Sciences Data Archive > Mission > Skylab.
Available via NASA Life Sciences Data Archive @ https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experiment/exper/226

NASA Ames Research Center. “Circadian Rhythm in Vinegar Gnats (S072).” NASA Life Sciences Data Archive > Mission > Skylab.
Available via NASA Life Sciences Data Archive @ https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experiment/exper/227

NASA Content Administrator. “The Skylab Crewed Missions.” NASA > Missions > All Missions A-Z > S > Skylab. May 6, 2013. Last updated Aug. 7, 2017.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/skylab/missions/skylab_manned.html

Newkirk, Roland W.; Ivan D. Ertel; and Courtney G. Brooks. Skylab: A Chronology. The NASA History Series. NASA SP-4011. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Branch, 1977.
Available via NASA History @ https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4011/contents.htm
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reporters Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19780017172.pdf

Skylab Mission Evaluation Team. Skylab Mission Report Second Visit. JSC-08662. Houston TX: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, January 1974.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reporters Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740011377.pdf

Souza, Kenneth; Robert Hogan; and Rodney Ballard, eds. “4. Programs, Missions, and Payloads -- Skylab 3.” Life Into Space: Space Life Sciences Experiments NASA Ames Research Center 1965-1990: 79-81. Moffett Field CA: NASA Ames Research Center, 1995.
Available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine @ https://web.archive.org/web/20090321010411/http://lis.arc.nasa.gov/lis/Programs/Skylab/Skylab_3/Skylab_3.html
Available via NASA @ https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/life_into_space_vol1.pdf

Steven-Boniecki, Dwight, ed. Skylab 3: The NASA Mission Reports. Apogee Space Books (Book 92). Burlington, Canada: Apogee Books, 2016.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Arabella and Anita Spun First Space Webs in August 1973 at Skylab

Summary: Arabella and Anita spun the first space webs in August 1973 at Skylab, the first United States space station, during the Skylab 3 mission.

Common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) Arabella and Anita spun the first space webs in August 1973 at Skylab, the first United States space station, during the Skylab 3 mission’s experiment on web formation in zero g-force (gravitational force), known as weightlessness.

The Skylab 3 mission involved a large, multi-species crew. Arabella and Anita numbered among four animal species involved in biological experiments conducted during Skylab 3, NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) second manned mission to the only space station operated exclusively by the United States. In addition to the two common cross spiders, six pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris), 180 fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) pupae, two mummichog minnows (Fundular heteroclitus) and 50 minnow fish eggs crewed as participants in experiments testing effects of weightlessness on web formation, circadian rhythms and orientation.

The mission’s commander was fourth moonwalker Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018). Owen Kay Garriott (born Nov. 22, 1930) and Jack Robert Lousma (born Feb. 29, 1936) experienced their first spaceflights on Skylab 3 in their respective capacities as scientist-pilot and mission pilot.

The Skylab 3 mission launched Saturday, July 28, 1973, at 11:10:50 Coordinated Universal Time (7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) from Launch Pad 39B, Cape Kennedy, along Florida’s east central coast. (Since Oct. 9, 1973, the cape has been known by its original name of Cape Canaveral, Spanish for Cabo Cañaveral, “cape of reed beds.”) The mission’s Saturn IB (one B) launch vehicle carried a payload of an Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) for insertion into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Low-Earth orbits occupy altitudes between 99 and 1,200 miles (160 to 2,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

Apollo CSM 117 successfully transported the mission’s crew and paraphernalia to the mission’s rendezvous with Skylab. The module docked at the space station at 19:37:00 UTC (3:37 p.m. EDT), eight hours 26 minutes 10 seconds after launch.

A specially designed, screened cage served as a protected site for web construction. Prior to and after their respective sessions in the cage, the first two spiders in space were secluded in separate transportation vials.

Arabella occupied the cage for the first three-week session, which began Sunday, Aug. 5. Arabella’s forced entry into the cage, effected by Owen Garriott’s shaking the reluctant spider’s vial, attested to her dismay at weightlessness. The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center’s Skylab Student Project Report, released August 1974, assessed Arabella’s awkward realization of the unfamiliar environment: “Arabella bounced back and forth moving erratically in a swimming motion before she affixed herself to the screen covering on the cage surface.”

Arabella’s “rudimentary web,” discovered in the cage’s corners Monday, Aug. 6, qualified Arabella as the first spider to spin a web in space. Her first web was found to be complete on Tuesday, Aug. 7.

The experiment’s protocol expected one spider to complete three webs. Accordingly, half of her first web was removed Monday, Aug. 13. Arabella ingested the remaining half but refrained from commencing a second web until the scientist-pilot supplied her with water. Arabella’s second and third webs revealed her mastery of weightlessness, as she moved confidently and spun competently. Arabella’s third web, observed in the cage Wednesday, Aug. 22, “. . . was pronounced to be her best to date . . .,” according to the MSFC Skylab Student Project Report.

Owen Garriott received permission to expand the protocol to test Anita’s skill sets in weightlessness. Anita’s three-week session began Sunday, Aug. 26. As with Arabella, first encounters with weightlessness proved troublesome for Anita’s movements and web construction. The second spider to make spun-in-space webs, however, overcame the challenges of her new environment, learning to move and spin with ease.

Sadly, on Sunday, Sept. 16, Owen Garriott discovered Anita’s lifeless body in the cage. He retrieved her body and deposited Anita’s dehydrated remains in her transportation vial.

The Skylab 3 mission ended Tuesday, Sept. 25. Apollo CSM 117 undocked from Skylab at 11:16:42 UTC (7:16 a.m. EDT). The module’s Pacific Ocean splashdown happened at 22:19:51 UTC (6:19 p.m. EDT).

Arabella apparently survived the orbital flight part of the Skylab 3 mission. She was found dead in her transportation vial after its post-splashdown removal from Apollo CSM 117.

The takeaway for Arabella and Anita, who spun the first space webs in August 1973 at Skylab, is that the two common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) displayed persistence and resilience in successfully adjusting to the unfamiliar conditions of weightlessness in their new habitat, Skylab's Orbital Workshop (OWS), in space.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s (MSFC) Dr. Raymond L. Gause, who serves as MSFC science adviser for Lexington, Massachusetts, high schooler Judith S. Miles’ web formation experiment, places a housefly as dinner in the web of common cross spider (Araneus diadematus) Arabella, the experiment’s prime spider; the end of Dr. Gause’s pen points to Arabella; NASA ID S73-32499 (July 1973); Date Created 1973-08-15; photo credit NASA: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-s73-32499

Skylab 3 mission’s spider cage for Experiment ED52, Web Formation in Zero Gravity (top left); Apollo 9 (March 3-March 13, 1969) Lunar Module Pilot Russell “Rusty” Schweikart (lower left) was involved in the manned Skylab missions in various capacities; Rusty Schweikart and Dr. Raymond Gause, NASA MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) science adviser for student investigator Judith L. Miles’ web formation experiment; NASA ID 0102080; Date Created 1973-01-01: Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-0102080

For further information:

Burgess, Colin; and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Chichester UK: Praxis Publishing Ltd., 2007.

Evans, Ben. “A Sick Crew and A Sick Ship: The Trials of Skylab 3 (Part 1).” AmericaSpace. July 27, 2013.
Available @ https://www.americaspace.com/2013/07/27/a-sick-crew-and-a-sick-ship-the-trials-of-skylab-3-part-1/

Gamache, Martin. “Niger (1999).” Arachnids on Stamps. Oct. 27, 2008.
Available @ http://arachnidstamps.blogspot.com/2012/02/niger-scorpions.html

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “Web Formation – Skylab Student Experiment ED-52.” Jan. 1, 1973.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MSFC-9513727

Pearlman, Robert. “Space Spider Lands in Smithsonian Display.” collectSpace > News. Dec. 3, 2012.
Available @ http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-120312a.html

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “’Anita’ on Display in the McDonnell Space Hangar.” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum > Multimedia Gallery.
Available @ https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/si2004-51277640jpg

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Spider Cage, Experiment ED52, Skylab 3.” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum > Collections > Objects on Display.”
Available @ https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/spider-cage-experiment-ed52-skylab-3

Wade, Mark. “Saturn IB.” Astronautix > Alphabetical Index > S.
Available @ http://www.astronautix.com/s/saturnib.html

Wade, Mark. “Skylab 3.” Astronautix > Alphabetical Index > S.
Available @ http://www.astronautix.com/s/skylab3.html

Williams, Matt. “What Is Low Earth Orbit?” Universe Today. Jan. 6, 2017.
Available @ https://www.universetoday.com/85322/what-is-low-earth-orbit/