Paul Weitz's Skylab I Rotational Hand Controller

On May 25, 1972, a Saturn 1B lifted off from Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch signified a new era in manned space flight. The Apollo spacecraft carried three men, Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joe Kerwin to a rendezvous with America's first space station, Skylab. They would become the first men to fly a long term mission in space.

In order to rendezvous with Skylab, the crew had to use their Rotational Hand Controller (RHC) to maneuver the Apollo Command Module into the proper attitude for docking. The photograph shown above is one of the hand controllers that was needed to accomplish the rendezvous and docking. The RHC shown above was under the command of Skylab I Pilot, Paul Weitz.


As highlighted in the photograph above, the rotational hand controllers were located next to the commander and the pilot of the spacecraft.

The above diagram shows the complete RHC assembly and the degrees of freedom on each axis. A movement of the wrist was all that was required to move the spacecraft along the three different axes. The diagram and working knowledge of the RHC was provided courtesy of John Fongheiser at Historic Space Systems (www.space1.com).


This side view of the RHC shows the mike activation button (black color) located on the hand grip of the controller. A movement of the index finger would activate the microphone located in the crewman's helmet.


The scan shows the actual ASHUR report listing the removal of the Skylab 1/SL-2 (Skylab II) Rotational Hand Controllers after the mission for crew evaluation. The crew was later presented with the RHC's as a memento of their mission to America's first manned space station.



Paul Weitz, who served as Skylab One's pilot, poses with the Rotational Hand Controller presentation that was given to him by NASA after the completion of his flight in 1973.


As a side note, it appears that the RHC's were custom fitted as shown above. The test RHC is signed by Gene Cernan and is from his collection. It is a plaster casted piece used in the test designs for the controller.