Joseph Kerwin, born February 19, 1932 in Oak Park, Illinois, went into space aboard Skylab 2. He received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University Medical School in 1957 and became a naval flight surgeon in 1958.
NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1965, the first physician to selected for astronaut training. He launched aboard Skylab 2 as science pilot May 25, 1973 and returned to Earth June 22. He performed one EVA during the mission with fellow astronaut Pete Conrad lasting 3 hours, 25 minutes.
May 25, 1973, Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr., Science
Pilot Joseph P. Kerwin and Pilot Paul J. Weitz blasted off in Skylab 2, the
first manned mission to Skylab, which had been launched 11 days prior. The unmanned portion was damaged during its
May 14 launch. The micrometeorite shield
and one of its primary solar arrays tore loose during lift-off. The other primary solar array, which was to
keep the space station cool, was jammed.
Skylab crew had to train on repairing techniques before they
could enter the station. Upon reaching the station, Weitz performed an EVA to
unjam the solar array while Kerwin held onto his legs. This did not work so they tried a hard dock
to Skylab, but this failed as well, since the lathes did not work.
After a total of eight attempts, Weitz and
Kerwin performed another EVA and were successful at docking by disassembling
parts of the station’s mechanism. Then
they deployed a collapsible parasol through the scientific airlock as a sunshade
to cool the interior to livable levels.
For almost a month, the crew continued to make repairs to
Skylab, conduct medical experiments and gather scientific data. They performed a final EVA to fix the stuck
solar panel and increasing electrical power to the station.
They spent four weeks in space and returned to Earth June
22.
