Mission Designations
The numerical identification of the manned Skylab missions was the cause of some confusion. Originally, the unmanned launch of Skylab and the three manned missions to the station were numbered SL-1 through SL-4. During the preparations for the manned missions, some documentation was created with a different scheme -- SLM-1 through SLM-3—for those missions only. William Pogue credits Pete Conrad with asking the Skylab program director which scheme should be used for the mission patches, and the astronauts were told to use 1-2-3, not 2-3-4. By the time NASA administrators tried to reverse this decision, it was too late, as all the in-flight clothing had already been manufactured and shipped with the 1-2-3 mission patches.
| Mission | Emblem | Commander | Pilot | Science Pilot | Launch date | Landing date | Duration (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skylab 1 SL-1 | unmanned launch of space station | 1973-05-14 17:30:00 UTC |
1979-07-11 16:37:00 UTC |
2248.96 | |||
| Skylab 2 SL-2 (SLM-1) | Pete Conrad | Paul Weitz | Joseph Kerwin | 1973-05-25 13:00:00 UTC |
1973-06-22 13:49:48 UTC |
28.03 | |
| Skylab 3 SL-3 (SLM-2) | Alan Bean | Jack Lousma | Owen Garriott | 1973-07-28 11:10:50 UTC |
1973-09-25 22:19:51 UTC |
59.46 | |
| Skylab 4 SL-4 (SLM-3) | Gerald Carr | William Pogue | Edward Gibson | 1973-11-16 14:01:23 UTC |
1974-02-08 15:16:53 UTC |
84.04 | |
Read more about this topic: Skylab
Famous quotes containing the word mission:
“Every Age has its own peculiar faith.... Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)