Skylab: The Myth of the Mutiny in Space

This story seems to have changed over time. It’s been separately reported that the crew was so fed up they took the day off without permission, and that was the only thing that jolted mission control into agreeing to backing off the micromanagement.<p>Also supposedly Jerry Carr was sidelined by NASA as punishment for leading the “mutiny” and never given an opportunity to fly the Shuttle.<p>NASA PR, as always, has their own spin on it.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nasa.gov&#x2F;feature&#x2F;the-real-story-of-the-skylab-4-strike-in-space" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nasa.gov&#x2F;feature&#x2F;the-real-story-of-the-skylab-4-...</a>

&gt; &quot;Our mission proved that micromanagement does not work, except where a situation like lift-off or re-entry demands it,&quot; says Ed. &quot;Fortunately, that hard lesson got passed on for future space flights and crews.&quot;<p>I can think of a few people I&#x27;ve worked for who never learned this.

I’ve always disliked the tendency to describe this otherwise amusing anecdote as a ‘strike’ or ‘mutiny.’ By definition, the captain of a ship—-or commander of a mission—-can’t ‘mutiny.’ They may be held responsible for their actions, court martialed, grounded, etc. but decisions made by the commander during the mission, whatever they are^1, are legitimate. That the mission commander aboard the ship would function as a military commander was established very early in NASA’s history—-going back to Mercury, where the commander was also the crew. Carr decided or agreed that his crew needed a break, and he had been very carefully selected to be the person who had the authority to make that decision. (^1 There is a modern exception to this rule in the case of illegal orders and war crimes, but that somewhat fraught question doesn’t apply here.)

Personally I found this bit very interesting:<p>&gt; The narrative really took on a life of its own when a New Yorker article in 1976 referred to &quot;a sort of sit-down strike one day about half-way through the mission&quot;.<p>&gt; From there the Harvard Business School built a case study on the perils of micromanagement called Strike in Space, which sourced the New Yorker article.<p>Reminded me of the Gell-Mann amnesia effect [0] but at a societal level. I wonder how much of our received wisdom is post facto rationalisation and speculative explanation.<p>Recent events in the world have reminded me of a mediaeval letter from father to son - the gist of it is that the son would be shocked if he knew how poorly the high and the mighty were at taking good decisions - it is only from a distance that power appears to be well exercised.<p>I can&#x27;t find the specific reference, but would be very grateful if someone from the HN family could chime in :)<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnes...</a>

It is linked from the article but I think the audio interview is a more interesting link, so here it goes:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;programmes&#x2F;w3cszmsv" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;programmes&#x2F;w3cszmsv</a>

&gt; Amazingly, he says, in the last 48 years only one other reporter has been in touch with the Skylab 4 crew apart from the BBC, to ask them for their account of what happened.<p><i>sigh</i>

Great piece, this is. The inverse relationship between productivity and micromanagent is one that every one should discuss with their boss.

Image legend:<p>&gt;&gt;Nasa staff at mission control discussing a problem with Skylab<p>Including a gentleman who appears to be a rehabilitated space pirate. How cool.

The fate of For All Mankind’s Skylab project was a fun twist, and possibly one of the least realistic. Yes, it has some things in common with what it became in their timeline, but would they have done that? No way.