That Time Three Astronauts Went on Strike -in Space!

Skylab was the United States' first space station, and so far the only space station completely controlled by the US alone. The station was launched in 1973, housed astronauts on three missions, and crash landed across Australia in 1979. Slylab's purpose was to establish the feasibility of a space station and conduct experiments on living in space for extended periods of time. The third crewed mission launched on November 16, 1973, with astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward Gibson, and William R. Pogue.

The Skylab 4 crew spent 84 days on the space station, and were tasked with operations that basically had them working around the clock. Their 12-week mission was also longer than any NASA mission at that time. In January of 1974, the crew informed NASA that they were taking a day off. They turned communications off, and there was nothing NASA could do about it. Was it mutiny? It was only one day, and it led to NASA reconsidering how it treated its astronauts. Read about the one-day strike on Skylab at Smithsonian. -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: NASA)


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