See You Next Year

The Saturn 1-B rocket lifted from its launch pad into the air above Cape Canaveral, Fla., and remained visible for miles downrange last week as it carried three rookie astronauts toward their rendezvous with the Skylab space station orbiting some 270 miles above the earth. The third and final Skylab mission was launched. The unprecedented stay in space may last as long as 84 days and will encompass the Skylab project's most ambitious undertakings yet.

While aloft in the Skylab station--in orbit since May 14--the astronauts will perform a complex series of tasks, including observation of the comet Kohoutek. The three men, who if all goes well are not due to return until February 1974, will be making the last U.S. manned space journey until the joint Russian-American flight, scheduled for July 1975.

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