The Explorers' Club, № MI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Skylab 4, Part IV
28 December 1973: Carr, Gibson, & Pogue did not respond to hails from mission control for about ninety minutes, due to a misunderstanding amongst the trio as to whom was supposed to monitor the radio; in 1976, The New Yorker magazine fabricated the story of a deliberate "strike" (or "mutiny"), defaming the crew by misapplying quotes about the post-E.V.A. rest days on 26 & 30 December.

Commentary: The Skylab "strike" is a fiction, a fantasy for which there is no evidence. Yet in 2014 The New York Times libeled Skylab 4 astronaut Bill Pogue by mentioning the "strike" in his obituary, as if it was fact instead of fiction. For shame!

Commander Jerry Carr had already requested a discussion with the ground about the tensions & scheduling issues that were hampering Skylab 4. The problem, in brief, is that Mission Control had expected the Skylab 4 crew to be, from the jump, as super productive as the Skylab 3 crew (Bean, Garriott, & Lousma) had been at the end of their mission, not as productive as Skylab 3 had been at the start of their mission. Skylab 4 fell behind that unrealistic schedule & Houston, to get the mission back on track, started micromanaging every task. The situation soon resulted in a negative feedback loop. After the "sensitivity session" on 30 December, all non-time-dependent tasks were placed on a "shopping list," from which the astronauts could choose what to do & when, restoring much of the astronauts' agency. The Skylab 4 crew's productivity skyrocketed, surpassing that of Skylab 3.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Skylab 4
Michael Giacchino, "End of the First Leg" from Speed Racer: Original Motion Picture Score (Space Cadet Mike Papa DSKY)

Semper exploro.