Editor’s Note: SpaceAgeChronice.com welcomes Jeff Carr writing about his father, Jerry Carr, a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, NASA astronaut and commander of the record-shattering Skylab 4 mission in 1973 and 1974.

America’s first space station, Skylab, was launched May 14, 1973. Following crew stays of 28 and 59 days, the Skylab 4 crew lifted off on Nov. 16, 1973. Carr was joined on the mission by science pilot Ed Gibson and pilot Bill Pogue. The 84 days in space stood as the endurance record until 1978 when the Soyuz 26 crew spent 96 days in Earth orbit aboard the Soviet Salyut 6 space station.

Skylab 4 “conducted a remarkable science program that included a wealth of biomedical investigations designed to test the effects of long duration spaceflight on the human body,” NASA’s website reports. “Observations associated with the Earth Resources Experiment Package and solar observations from instruments mounted on the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) revolutionized our understanding of the Sun.”

During the mission, the crew performed four spacewalks, including one on Christmas Day 1973. Carr and Gibson photographed the Comet Kohoutek and replaced film cassettes in the ATM. At the time, it was the longest spacewalk to date.

Dad’s Own Christmas Miracle

By Jeff Carr

Dec. 25, 1973 I was 15 years old and spent most of the day glued to the “squawk box” listening in on the air-to-ground chatter between Skylab and Mission Control.

(NOTE: During the Gemini and Apollo eras, NASA arranged for small speakers, known as “squawk boxes,” to be placed in astronauts’ homes so families could listen to conversations between the crews and Mission Control.)

Dad would have an experience that day that only a very small number of humans have ever had . . . the Earth, to himself, in a moment of reckoning, wonder and profound realization.

He “walked” in space that day, for 7 hours, most of that time spent focused on the tasks at hand, but during one LOS (loss of signal), he took the opportunity to turn his back on the Skylab workshop.

All he could hear was his own breathing inside his helmet, the faint buzz of his life support system and his heart beating. All he could see before him was the Earth in all its glory – fragile, elegant, alive.

His observations were like others I have heard . . . that the vivid living colors are unlike anything the rest of us have seen from a terrestrial point of view. The oceans, rivers, ice capped mountains and the deserts merge naturally without any evidence of human-imposed boundaries like borders or walls.

The visible effects of man were concentrated in relatively small areas but appeared as scars on our beautiful planet.

That experience impressed upon him the urgency for humankind to get into harmony with the environment and one another. And, a steely-eyed missile man began a life transformation and found a new mission.

It recalibrated his personal humility and redefined his political views. Over time, he became more and more at ease putting his experience into words and sharing with people whenever he had the chance.

I will always look back on that as dad’s own Christmas miracle.

About Jeff Carr: Since 2010, Jeff Carr has served as president of Houston-based Griffin Communications Group providing strategic planning, client and team counsel and campaign execution for organizations such as Boeing’s “Starliner” Commercial Crew Program, Virgin Galactic and Sierra Nevada Corp. He grew up in Houston and earned a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and film at the University of Texas. His roles with NASA at the agency’s Johnson Space Center included serving as director of Public Affairs. For 13 years, Carr was director of Communications and Public Relations for United Space Alliance, NASA’s Space Program Operations Contractor.

Jerry Carr-Top Gun

An October 2000 interview for NASA’s Oral History Project was an occasion when Jerry Carr reiterated his observations of Earth without human-imposed borders.

“You can see no boundaries that man puts up between himself and his fellow man,” Carr said. “The only boundaries you can see are the natural ones, the rivers, the lakes, things like that. We’re all in the same boat together and we really ought to learn to live peacefully together.”

A native of Denver, Colorado, Carr earned bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1954 and an aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1961. He also was awarded a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University in 1962.

Following Marine Corps flight training at Pensacola, Florida and Kingsville, Texas, Carr served as a test pilot flying the F-9, F-6A Skyray and F-8 Crusader. His skills were demonstrated one day, taking off from an aircraft carrier piloting a Skyray.

“This young Marine aviator lost his nose gear during a carrier launch,” Jeff Carr wrote about his dad. “He completed his mission, dumped his fuel and hooked the cable in a perfect two-wheel landing. It earned him a Top Gun citation and the attention of superiors.”

In April 1966, Carr was selected as one of 19 new astronauts. His experience during NASA’s Moon landing program included serving as capsule communicator during the Apollo 8 and Apollo 12 missions.

After retiring from the Marine Corps and NASA, Carr founded an aerospace consulting company, CAMUS Incorporated. One of the firm’s primary jobs was developing crew systems for the International Space Station.

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