page_title: Skylab controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Skylab controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: These three men are the prime crewmen for the Skylab 4 mission. Pictured in their flight suits with a globe and a model of the Skylab space station are, left to right, Astronaut Gerald P. Carr, commander; Scientist-Astronaut Edward G. Gibson, science pilot; and Astronaut William R. Pogue, pilot.
context_page_description: A work slowdown, characterized by some writers as the Skylab strike, Skylab mutiny or the Skylab controversy, was instigated during some or all of December 28, 1973 by the crew of Skylab 4—the last of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Skylab missions. According to Michael Hiltzik, the three astronauts, Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue, turned off radio communications with NASA ground control and spent time relaxing and looking at the Earth before resuming communication with NASA, refusing communications from mission control during this period. Once communications resumed, there were discussions between the crew and NASA. The mission continued for several more weeks before the crew returned to Earth in 1974. The 84-day mission was Skylab's last crew, and the last time American astronauts set foot in a space station for two decades, until Shuttle–Mir in the 1990s.
  The event, which the involved astronauts have joked about, has been extensively studied as a case study in various fields of endeavor including space medicine, team management, and psychology.
context_section_description: A work slowdown, characterized by some writers as the Skylab strike, Skylab mutiny or the Skylab controversy, was instigated during some or all of December 28, 1973 by the crew of Skylab 4—the last of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Skylab missions. According to Michael Hiltzik, the three astronauts, Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue, turned off radio communications with NASA ground control and spent time relaxing and looking at the Earth before resuming communication with NASA, refusing communications from mission control during this period. Once communications resumed, there were discussions between the crew and NASA. The mission continued for several more weeks before the crew returned to Earth in 1974. The 84-day mission was Skylab's last crew, and the last time American astronauts set foot in a space station for two decades, until Shuttle–Mir in the 1990s.
  The event, which the involved astronauts have joked about, has been extensively studied as a case study in various fields of endeavor including space medicine, team management, and psychology. Man-hours in space were, and continued to be into the 21st century, a profoundly expensive undertaking; a single day on Skylab was worth about $22.4 million in 2017 dollars, and thus any work stoppage was considered inappropriate due to the expense. According to Space Safety Magazine, the incident affected the planning of future space missions, especially long-term missions.
  The exact nature of what happened, or whether anything happened at all, is controversial. Spaceflight history author David Hitt disputed that the crew purposefully ended contact with mission control in a book written with former astronauts Owen K. Garriott and Joseph P. Kerwin.
caption: Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue, August 1973
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