Skylab 3 Astronaut Wives Pranked Spouses With Unofficial Mission Patch

Summary: Skylab 3 astronaut wives pranked their spouses with an unofficial mission patch, designed as a parody of the Skylab 3 mission’s official patch.

The Skylab 3 mission crew’s wives created their own version (right) of the mission’s official patch (left): Dante Centuori @ScienceDante, via Twitter July 28, 2017

Skylab 3 astronaut wives pranked their spouses with an unofficial mission patch, which they designed to parody the original patch officially approved by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for the second manned mission to the Skylab space station.

The Skylab 3 mission launched Saturday, July 28, 1973, at 11:10:50 Coordinated Universal Time (7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), from Launch Pad 39B at Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral since Oct. 9, 1973) in east central Florida. The 59-day stay at Skylab, the first United States space station, ended with a northeastern Pacific Ocean splashdown Tuesday, Sept. 25, 1973, at 22:19:51 UTC (6:19 p.m. EDT).

Fourth moonwalker Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018) commanded the Skylab 3 mission. Bean had walked twice on the moon, during extravehicular activities (EVAs) on two successive days, Wednesday, Nov. 19, and Thursday, Nov. 20, 1969, for the Apollo 12 mission.

The two other members of the mission’s three-astronaut crew were Owen Kay Garriott (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019) and Jack Robert Lousma (born Feb. 29, 1936), as scientist-pilot and mission pilot, respectively. The Skylab 3 mission afforded first spaceflights and first spacewalks to Garriott and Lousma.

The three astronauts’ input into the mission patch yielded a patriotic, tri-color design with the red, white and blue of the United States flag. The patch’s iconography emphasized Earth, sun and medical themes. The design centered on Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci’s circle-and-square-inscribed, dynamic Vitruvian Man, modified for “family viewing.” A red, partial solar disk, alive with yellow orange flares and edged with lively solar prominences, halved the circle backdropping the male figure’s right side. The North and South American continents, resplendently framed by the Atlantic and Pacific’s blueness, claimed the half enclosing the figure’s left side.

The last names of the Skylab 3 mission’s three astronauts arched above the circle’s upper half. Black capital letters identified “Bean Garriott Lousma” as the mission’s crew.

The official patch, however, did not remain as the only Skylab 3 mission-themed patch. Mission pilot Jack Lousma recalled for Dick Lattimer’s All We Did Was Fly to the Moon (1983) the Skylab 3 mission’s “wives’ patch.” After their arrival in orbit, Bean, Garriott and Lousma discovered their wives’ version of the official mission patch affixed to three of the storage lockers in Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) 117, the spacecraft that delivered the trio to the Skylab space station. Jack Lousma described the wives’ prank as “. . . consistent with one of our mottos, ‘Never lose your sense of humor.’”

The pranked patch differed from the official patch in its caption and central figure. The wives’ first names, Sue (Bean), Helen-Mary (Garriott), Gratia (Lousma), replaced the official patch’s last name listing of the crew, Bean, Garriot, Lousma. The male figure is redrawn as a female with lowered arms. Her inner arms rest at her sides while her outer arms hover less than halfway to shoulder height.

Houston area artist Ardis Shanks drew the unofficial patch’s female figure using her favorite model, a local girl named Cheir, according to Spacepatches.nl. Ardis Shanks gave private art lessons, and one of her students was Alan Bean. The Skylab 3 mission commander resigned from NASA in June 1981 to begin a new career, in retirement, as a painter of lunar landscapes.

Both the official and unofficial patches for the Skylab 3 mission identified the mission as Skylab II. The Skylab II caption referenced the mission’s status as NASA’s second manned mission to the Skylab space station.

Designated as SL-3, the Skylab 3 mission numbered as the third launch in the Skylab space station’s operational history. Skylab 1 (SL-1) indicated the Monday, May 14, 1973, launch of the modified Saturn V rocket carrying the Skylab space station. Skylab 2 (SL-2) and Skylab 4 (SL-4) launched Friday, May 25, 1973, and Friday, Nov. 16, 1973, as the first and third manned missions, respectively, to the space station.

In Homesteading Space (2008), spaceflight historian William David Hitt (born Aug. 7, 1975) and Skylabbers Owen Garriott and Joseph Peter “Joe” Kerwin (born Feb. 19, 1932) explained the changed numbering scheme as stemming from a communications snafu between the Skylab Project manager and NASA headquarters.

The takeaway for the Skylab 3 astronaut wives’ pranking their spouses with an unofficial mission patch is a sense of humor can trace a long trajectory, even from Earth outward into space.

Unaware that their wives’ pranked patches are already stowed in storage lockers in their space transport vehicle, Apollo CSM (Command and Service Module) 117, Alan Bean (right), Owen Garriott (middle) and Jack Lousma (left) head to their ride to the Skylab 3 mission’s launch vehicle Saturday, July 28, 1973; the mission’s official patch is affixed to the van’s open door: Public Domain, via NASA Human Spaceflight

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Skylab 3 mission crew’s wives created their own version (right) of the mission’s official patch (left): Dante Centuori @ScienceDante, via Twitter July 28, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/ScienceDante/status/890986000897462273

Unaware that their wives’ pranked patches are already stowed in storage lockers in their space transport vehicle, Apollo CSM (Command and Service Module) 117, Alan Bean (right), Owen Garriott (middle) and Jack Lousma (left) head to their ride to the Skylab 3 mission’s launch vehicle Saturday, July 28, 1973; the mission’s official patch is affixed to the van’s open door: Public Domain, via NASA Human Spaceflight @ https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/skylab/skylab3/html/s73-31801.html

For further information:

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Dante Centuori @ScienceDante. “Replying to @GLScienceCtr @NASAglenn and 2 others En route to Skylab, the crew got a surprise hidden in the capsule lockers: their wives made a special mission patch with their names on it!” Twitter. July 28, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ScienceDante/status/890986000897462273

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