Carr, Gerald

Gerald Carr, in full Gerald Paul Carr, (born August 22, 1932, Denver, Colorado, U.S.—died August 26, 2020, Albany, New York), U.S. astronaut who commanded the Skylab 4 mission, which established a new crewed spaceflight record of 84 days.

Carr graduated from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1954 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Later that same year he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and advanced to the rank of colonel. He continued his education at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, where he received a second bachelor’s degree in 1962, this time in aeronautical engineering. After pursuing advanced studies in the same field at Princeton University, he entered the astronaut program in 1966. He played a key role in the development of the lunar rover, a vehicle used on the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions to explore the Moon’s surface.

Skylab 4, launched on November 16, 1973, proved that humans could live and work in the weightless conditions of space for an extended period of time. The three-man crew comprised Carr, science pilot Edward Gibson, and command module pilot William Pogue. They made close-up observations of comet Kohoutek, the first above-atmosphere study of a comet ever conducted.

Carr retired from the Marine Corps in 1975 and resigned from the astronaut program two years later to enter private industry. In 1984 he founded Camus, a company that provided technical support in the design of the International Space Station. He retired from Camus in 1998.