Skylab 4

Skylab 4
The final view of Skylab, from the departing mission 4 crew
OperatorNASA
COSPAR ID1973-090A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.6936
Mission duration84 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes, 30 seconds
Distance travelled55,500,000 km (34,500,000 mi)
Orbits completed1214
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftApollo CSM-118
ManufacturerNorth American Rockwell
Launch mass20,847 kg (45,960 lb)
Crew
Crew size3
Members
EVAs4
Start of mission
Launch dateNovember 16, 1973, 14:01:23 (1973-11-16UTC14:01:23Z) UTC
RocketSaturn IB SA-208
Launch siteKennedy LC-39B
End of mission
Recovered byUSS New Orleans
Landing dateFebruary 8, 1974, 15:16:53 (1974-02-08UTC15:16:54Z) UTC
Landing site31°18′N 119°48′W / 31.300°N 119.800°W / 31.300; -119.800
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Perigee altitude422 km (262 mi)
Apogee altitude437 km (272 mi)
Inclination50.04 degrees
Period93.11 minutes
EpochJanuary 21, 1974[1]
Docking with Skylab
Docking portForward
Docking dateNovember 16, 1973, 21:55:00 UTC
Undocking dateFebruary 8, 1974, 02:33:12 UTC
Time docked83 days, 4 hours, 38 minutes, 12 seconds

Due to a NASA management error, crewed Skylab mission patches were designed in conflict with the official mission numbering scheme.

Left to right: Carr, Gibson and Pogue
Skylab program

Skylab 4 (also SL-4 and SLM-3[2]) was the third crewed Skylab mission and placed the third and final crew aboard the first American space station.

The mission began on November 16, 1973, with the launch of Gerald P. Carr, Edward Gibson, and William R. Pogue in an Apollo command and service module on a Saturn IB rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida,[3] and lasted 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes. A total of 6,051 astronaut-utilization hours were tallied by the Skylab 4 astronauts performing scientific experiments in the areas of medical activities, solar observations, Earth resources, observation of the Comet Kohoutek and other experiments.

The crewed Skylab missions were officially designated Skylab 2, 3, and 4. Miscommunication about the numbering resulted in the mission emblems reading "Skylab I", "Skylab II", and "Skylab 3" respectively.[2][4]

  1. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Pages. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Skylab Numbering Fiasco". Living in Space. William Pogue Official WebSite. 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  3. ^ "'Three happy rookies' off on longest space voyage". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. November 16, 1973. p. 1A.
  4. ^ Pogue, William. "Naming Spacecraft: Confusion Reigns". collectSPACE. Retrieved April 24, 2011.