The Day When Three NASA Astronauts Staged a Strike in Space

The astronauts above are Jerry Carr, Ed Gibson and William Pogue.  In 1973, they manned the Skylab 4 mission.  Scheduled for an 84 day mission, the astronauts were assigned 16 hour work days every single day.

Other astronauts on the ground team, including the commanders of the previous two Skylab missions, advised NASA that the plans were unreasonable. None of the three astronauts on the Skylab 4 mission had been in space before, but NASA hadn’t factored in any time for them to become acclimated to conditions aloft. They were plainly overscheduled.

Things went sideways from the start.  William Pogue became debilitatingly sick with nausea acclimatizing to space.  The team decided not to inform Mission Control of Pogue’s illness only to find out that ground control was eavesdropping on all that went on.

After the space crew received a scolding for withholding information things went from bad to worse.  The crew fell behind on the work schedule and the 16 hour days were beginning to wear them down physically and mentally.  They asked NASA for some time off to recharge and for more workable schedule.  Skylab Commander Jerry Carr argued to NASA:

“We would never work 16 hours a day for 84 straight days on the ground, and we should not be expected to do it here in space.”

NASA wouldn’t budge so the Skylab Astronauts simply turned off all communications with ground control and took a full day to relax and recharge.

Needless to say, this did not sit well with Mission Control, but what could they do?

Nothing.

The following day the Skylab 4 astronauts contacted NASA, who at that point were much more agreeable to a modified schedule.

You can read the full story at The Los Angeles Times in Michael Hiltzik’s The Day When Three NASA Astronauts Staged a Strike in Space.