Last Lick Lollipop

This was the last Earthly object touched by the last Saturn V launch.

It is what remains of the wind direction sensor from the highest 380-foot level of the Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT-2) on Pad 39A after a live passing of the Saturn V that brought to orbit America’s first space station.

After liftoff of AS-513 (Skylab-1), just about all of the foot-long “cup” area of the sensor was completely evaporated from its support structure as the plume of the rocket’s 7.6 million pounds of thrust brushed by during liftoff.

The subject of Puzzle 96, with more details from the source.