Earth orbit: Skylab 3 crew tracks bright reddish rotating object for 10 minutes

In the Skylab 1/3 technical crew debriefing of 4 October 1973 (pages 7-4, 7-5, 20-1 and 20-2), science pilot Owen Garriott, pilot Jack Lousma and commander Alan Bean describe an observation made about a week to ten days before recovery: Lousma first noticed what looked like a large red star out of the wardroom window; on closer examination it was much brighter than Jupiter or any planet, had a reddish hue even well above the horizon, and varied in brightness with a period of almost exactly 10 seconds, which the crew read as slow rotation. They tracked it for about 10 minutes until sunset; it left sunlight only 5 to 7 seconds after Skylab and held nearly the same position in the window, drifting perhaps 10 to 20 degrees, so the crew surmised it was in an orbit very close to their own and not more than 30 to 50 nautical miles away. It never took the shape of an object, could not be resolved with monitors, and was never seen again on earlier or later orbits. Garriott stated the crew took it for a satellite but that what satellite it was and how it came to be in such a similar orbit was never explained, and asked for an identification; the sighting was debriefed with precise timing on the onboard channel A recording. The excerpt collection also contains Skylab 2 (30 June 1973) comments on light flashes seen with closed eyes and Skylab 4 (22 February 1974) comments on flashing lights outside, presumed to be pieces of Skylab or other satellites; these are undated and not part of this event. The details are taken from the records released by the U.S. Department of War (record code NASA-UAP-D7) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.