(02/08/1974) --- SKYLAB 4 PACIFIC RECOVERY AREA -- A smiling William R. Pogue pauses in hatchway of Skylab 4 command module during recovery activities today aboard the USS New Orleans at the completion of man's longest space journey to date. Pogue splashed down with astronauts Gerald P. Carr and Dr. Edward G. Gibson at 11:17 a.m. EDT Feb. 8, 1974, 84 days after the trio was launched by a Saturn IB rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Circling the globe 1, 214 times aboard the sophisticated Skklab space station during the nearly three-month flight, the astronauts demonstrated man's ability to live and work in space for extended periods.