William Pogue

Bill Pogue was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He served as a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 7, 11, and 14 missions. He was also scheduled as Command-Module Pilot for the canceled Apollo 19 mission. Instead Pogue and Gerald Carr of Apollo 19 went to Skylab, America's first space station.Pogue was pilot of Skylab 4 (third and final manned visit to the Skylab orbital workshop), launched November 16, 1973, and concluded February 8, 1974. This was the longest manned flight (84 days, 1 hour and 15 minutes) in the history of manned space exploration to date. Pogue was accompanied on the record-setting 34.5-million-mile flight by Gerald P. Carr (commander) and Dr. Edward G. Gibson (science-pilot). They successfully completed 56 experiments, 26 science demonstrations, 15 subsystem detailed objectives, and 13 student investigations during their 1,214 revolutions of the earth.