SYNOPSIS: An Astronaut for seven and a half years, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Paul Carr, 41, is making his first space flight aboard Skylab Four. He is the crew commander.

His extensive training has included serving on the astronaut support crews for the Apollo Eight and Apollo Nine flights. While preparing for the Apollo flight to the moon, Carr participated in geological classroom work and in field trips...

...to the desert...

...to Iceland...

...and to the northwestern U.S.

Astronaut Carr also was involved in the development and testing of the Apollo Lunar roving vehicle, photographed here in operation on the moon itself.

Carr has logged more than 3000 flying hours, mostly as a member of Marien All-Weather Fighter Squadrons in both the United States and the Far East. He was one of 19 astronauts selected by NASA in 1966.

Astronaut Carr was born in Denver, and was reared in Santa Ana, California, where his mother, Mrs. Freda Carr, still lives.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Southern California, a Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School, and a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton.

Carr and his wife, Jo Ann, are the parents of six children, including two sets of twins. He lists his hobbies as woodworking and the restoration of an old automobile.

Every phase of the Skylab Four's scheduled journey...including splashdown...has been carefully rehearsed during hundreds of training simulations. Here the crew prepares for leaving the spacecraft after splashdown, with Navy frogmen on hand.

Next, without frogmen.

And finally, the crew simulates the possibility of successfully leaving the spacecraft oven should it not right itself in the water after splashdown.

Marine officer, veteran flyer and astronaut, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Carr is well qualified to command the mission of Skylab Four which is scheduled for 56 days with an option up to 70 days. This final flight in a series of three manned Skylab flights makes up the most ambitious and long-lived manned space research effort.