Enjoying the Earth

Momentarily forgetting that he was no longer living in the weightless environment of spaceflight, returned Skylab 3 Astronaut Ed Gibson put his blood pressure kit out in front of him and turned away; he was startled when the kit crashed to the floor. His fellow space traveler, Gerald Carr, was so astonished by the sound of tumbling ice cubes in his refrigerator that he nearly jumped out of his seat. His wife reassured him:

"It's not the CMG No. 2 [Skylab's balky gyroscope]. It's just the ice maker." Usually a shy homebody, Astronaut Bill Pogue began calling numerous friends and wanted to go to the theater--just to "see all the different faces."

After 84 days in earth orbit, the three men were constantly reminded that readjusting to terrestrial life was not without perils and problems. Once familiar sights and sounds now seemed exceedingly strange. Though their initial dizziness soon passed, every physical effort was a chore. Pogue, who said he felt as if he weighed a thousand tons, found that it even was work to roll over in bed. When Carr rested his head in his wife's lap, he kept asking: "Is this too heavy for you?" Nonetheless, the astronauts were delighted to be home. During the ride from the airport, Carr remained glued to the car window, gazing intently at the people, the houses and the greenery. Gibson quickly asked his wife Julie to join him in a walk. "I want to see the trees, feel the sun, hear the birds," he explained. "It's so nice to run again on the 'good earth.' "

For the first seven days after their splashdown off Lower California, the crew had little chance to sightsee. While NASA technicians began processing the 70 lbs. of film brought back from Skylab 3, the astronauts were kept in semi-quarantine; their contacts were limited to wives and selected NASA officials, as doctors tried to shield them from infections that would interfere with the medical tests. For 21 days the astronauts must also continue to eat Skylab-type prepackaged food, a teetotaling, less-than-gourmet diet that was particularly hard on Commander Carr; in space he dreamt continually of savoring his favorite cold beer while watching football on TV. The astronauts took the restrictions in stride. As they reported for their medical examinations at the Johnson Space Center, Flight Surgeon Jerry Hordinsky commented: "You would think that they were just three guys coming in for a routine blood test."

In some ways, the Skylab 3 crewmen were in better shape than their Skylab 1 and 2 predecessors, who had spent only 28 and 59 days in space. As expected, the three men almost immediately lost the 1 to IX inches in height that they had gained in orbit; without any weight on the spinal column, the spaces between the vertebrae had expanded. But none of the astronauts showed the loss of muscular strength in their arms and legs or weakening of the heart experienced by the earlier crews. The difference was probably a result of the stepped-up regimen of exercises on Skylab 3. In fact, Gibson, a 37-year-old solar physicist who is the youngest of the astronauts, was in such good shape that he began his Texas week by jog ging a brisk mile. The only really puzzling physical effect of the long tour was the loss of red blood cells and blood plasma, though it was less than that of other crews. Doctors conceded that subtle changes might show up later in their continued studies or during longer flights. But there was a growing conviction that there may be no practical limits on how long man can live in space.

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