SMEAT stands for, Skylab Medical Experiments Altitude Tests. In the Summer of 1972 astronauts Robert Crippen, Karol Bobko and Bill Thornton spent 56 days in a Skylab mock-up at the Manned Spacecraft Center's altitude chamber to simulate the actual conditions that flight crews would experience in orbit. The test provided extensive medical data, but the mock-up did not contain duplicates of the experiments that would fly on Skylab and so the crew had plenty of time to read books, assemble model cars and learn how to speak Russian. Later Crippen and Bobko would perform support roles on the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.
This is a modern reproduction
