By the end of 1973 the United States’ was firmly entrenched in its long-term space station program. The Skylab Orbital Workshop had managed to survive its birthing pains and had already successfully carried two crews in low earth orbit when Apollo astronauts Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Ed Gibson strapped themselves atop one of the remaining Saturn IB super boosters.

Destined to be the second-to-last crew to fly in the remarkable Apollo spacecraft the three men would spend an unprecedented 84 days in space. Although none of them had any previous spaceflight experience they had all trained for many years in hopes of a trip to the moon, only to find themselves slated to set new long-duration records for spaceflight.

Over almost three months Carr, Pogue and Gibson conducted an inordinate amount of experiments inside the cavernous Skylab space station. They studied the sun in ways never before achieved, monitoring solar flares and coronal mass ejections from our home star. They also began the first real work of earth observation.

The crew of Skylab 4 proved that it was possible for humans to live in space for extended periods without too many adverse effects. They worked out the first stringent space exercise regimens to help them to maintain their health and they conducted multiple spacewalks. Without a doubt, the crew of Skylab 4 pioneered the way forward in space station research and their efforts would light the path for the International Space Station.

In Skylab 4 The NASA Mission Reports you will find the remarkable details of NASA’s final early space station experiment through the original documents published at the time of the mission, including the mission debriefing telling the story in the crew’s own words.