Skylab 4 (or was it 3?)

The fourth Skylab mission started on November 16, 1973, and it lasted 84 days. The three astronauts (Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue) were all rookies who had never flown in in space before.

When they arrived aboard Skylab they were shocked to find that they had company – three figures dressed in NASA flight suits!

The previous crew had left a practical joke for them: three dummies with Skylab 4 mission emblems and name tags.

In Space History class today, I got confused about the number of each Skylab mission. I thought the third crewed mission was called Skylab 3, but I was wrong. The third crewed mission was really the fourth overall mission. Skylab 1 was the uncrewed launch of the orbital workshop. Skylab 2 was the first crewed mission, and Skylab 3 was the next mission.

But, I'm not the only person who was confused. The patch designers also messed up, and Skylab 4's astronaut patch has a prominent "3" on it.