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Author
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Topic: Space Cover 663: SMEAT and canned meat
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micropooz Member Posts: 1648 From: Washington, DC, USA Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 08-14-2022 05:39 AM
Space Cover of the Week, Week 663 (August 14, 2022) Space Cover 663: SMEAT, Snoopy, and Canned MeatFifty years ago, the crew of the Skylab Medical Experiments Altitude Test (SMEAT) was in the midst of their 56-day test of life cooped up in a vacuum chamber outfitted with Skylab equipment and at the reduced atmospheric pressure that would be used on Skylab. Remember the old slam about the Mercury astronauts being "Spam in the can"? Even more so here! The cover above was postmarked on July 26, 1972, the day that (then) unflown astronauts Bob Crippen, Bill Thornton, and "Bo" Bobko entered the vacuum chamber in Houston to begin their 56 day stay. It was prepared by the Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club using the crew's patch that featured Snoopy getting "roped in" to the test. These covers are fairly easy to find and are popular not only for their tie-in with the space program, but also with Snoopy (the dog in the Peanuts comic strip of the era). SMEAT's primary objective was to evaluate equipment and procedures proposed for use during the Skylab missions, as well as provide a baseline from which to measure the crews who flew on Skylab. One of the cited achievements of the SMEAT test was to troubleshoot and repair the malfunctioning Skylab urine collection system which led to a very successful flight unit. Those poor guys... ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/micropooz/scotw663b.jpg) Here's another favorite SMEAT cover, this one also postmarked on July 26, 1972 in Houston, and signed by all three crewmen. And if you look at the handwriting that fills in the cachet, it looks a lot like Crippen's handwriting. This cover was addressed to the late Charlie Simpson, who I had met in Houston in the late '80's. Charlie dabbled in space covers, but his forte' was finagling to get covers carried onboard deep-sea submersible dives. Maybe Charlie found a way to finagle Crippen to fill out the cachet(?). We'll probably never know. Here's a picture of Crippen, Thornton, and Bobko inside their Skylab-bedecked vacuum chamber. ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/micropooz/scotw663c.jpg) All three of these guys, having paid their dues on SMEAT, went on to some very distinguished careers onboard the Space Shuttle! And lastly you are probably wondering about the end of the title for this article. While researching this article, I learned that smeat is now a slang term for any kind of canned meat (a merger of Spam and meat). Apropos? |
Ken Havekotte Member Posts: 3494 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 08-14-2022 03:14 PM
Fifty years ago in the summer of 1972, as Dennis' SCOTW-topic starter celebrates, was the nearly 2-month mostly unknown SMEAT development test. The three participating rookie astronaut crewmen were placed inside a 20-foot altitude chamber in Building 7 of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Each SMEAT astronaut had 500 hours training in preparation for the 56-day SMEAT program that proved critical to the success of America's first crewed space station in 1973-74.Added below are a few more SMEAT covers (crew signed) along with a signed glossy. Two of the cachet covers are Manned Spaceflight Covers by Jack McMahan, also in the Houston area, near the space center there for the start (July 26) and completion (Sept. 20) of the developmental test series. ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/kenhavekotte/scotw663a.jpg) The cover depicted by Dennis filled out by head crewman Bob Crippen for deep-sea submersible/space cover collector Charles Simpson, also in the Houston area, was interesting to see. I had known and worked with Simpson on a number of space "carried cover" projects throughout the late 1970's. While there could be a slight possibility that this cover was perhaps with Crippen onboard the SMEAT chamber, it seems unlikely from how the cover was written-up and notated. I do recall, long ago, in seeing a carried SMEAT cover. Anyone have one to share? While SMEAT was a highly successful test operation with many medical experiment developmental studies conducted, there were problems encountered. As reported by space author David Shayler, one of the problems faced during the Skylab "ground" exercises was with the urine collection system. The system eventually broke down (failed) and leaked that resulted in lost data and a rather messy clean-up period. Shayler's book on America's first space station also addressed the crew's psychological state that had been carefully monitored and by frustrations with "ground" personnel. Among some of the horseplay by the crew, Shayler wrote of a planned practical joke by the crew involving the collection of lint to create what appeared to be hairballs and some smuggled chicken bones to convince test conductors that a cat was somehow onboard. As it turned out, the crew had been too busy, and the joke never happened. |
James913 Member Posts: 306 From: Houston, TX Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 08-16-2022 06:27 PM
I have one of these covers signed by the crew and by Kenneth “Kenny” Samuel Kleinknecht, who was manager of the Skylab program office from 1970 to 1974. Some nice pieces on Kenny if you do a Google search.![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/james913/scotw663a.jpg) | |
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