Late July, 1973, (Launch Date was July 28, 1973)

This was the first launch I had ever seen, and I will always remember the event.

One member of my "crew" had an airline ticket from Orlando, FL, to his home in Indiana. So our first stop on the way home was the airport in Orlando. The return trip by car would be two of us. That would mean fewer people to share the driving, but it wasn't too bad. It was exciting to have been a part of history; we were so close to it. Scanning the AM radio band we frequently tried to find news on Skylab 3. We found very little news, that was frustrating.

Over a bridge in Savannah, Georgia a "V-belt" broke. No problem now, we knew the routine. Off the bridge, the first available parking space, the last belt replacement.

I think we may have stopped two nights on the trip home, with no side trips. Money was OK, but running low. Anything else would be anti-climactic.

I think I noticed the scenery more on the trip home than down.

We discussed what we saw. How we wished we had better cameras to record the event. How we planned to earn money during the rest of the summer prior to returning to the University in the fall.

Most of all I wondered what it felt like to be living and working aboard Skylab, what did weightlessness feel like? What would be learned in terms of Astronomy and Life Sciences? I think the two areas of inquiry were the most interesting to me.

We returned home, safe and tired. There was a load of film to be processed. When I find the photos I had taken, I will be sure to have some on this site.