Windsor could match; the oriel window of stained glass, brought
piece by piece from Flanders; the long line of family portraits. Then
he took her through the state apartments, with their gilded carvings
and priceless furniture, grand lofty rooms, as splendid as anything she
had seen, even in palatial Venice; to the library, which a studious,
book-loving duke had constructed with infinite care and pains, and
filled with rare and choice editions; to the smaller rooms in which he
and she and Yorke would live, and which with their modern decorations
and furniture were the epitome of elegance and comfort. Then they
went up the great staircase and along the broad corridors, lined with
pictures and statuary.

"These are your rooms," he said, opening a door, and smiling as Leslie
uttered a cry of amazement and delight. "You like them?"Owen K. Garriott, one of the original scientists selected to explore the cosmos firsthand and the first astronaut to operate an interstellar ham radio station, died on Monday at his home in Huntsville, Ala. He was 88.

His death was confirmed by his son Richard.

Dr. Garriott flew into space twice. In 1973 he was the science pilot of Skylab 3, the record-breaking 59-day mission — more than double the duration of any previous flight — to Skylab, the first United States space station.

He logged nearly 14 hours outside Skylab in three spacewalks, during which physiological and biomedical metrics were monitored to determine the body’s response to long periods spent in reduced gravity.

“We learned the importance of exercise,” Dr. Garriott said. “If you have the appropriate amount of exercise, namely