In 1979, Skylab’s uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere caused debris to fall on Esperance, Australia. NASA was fined by the city, which was later paid by a California DJ. The Esperance Museum has exhibits from the event, and a teenager won a prize for delivering a piece of Skylab to San Francisco.
The residents of Esperance, Western Australia never expected to make headlines around the world, but that’s exactly what happened in July 1979, when the Skylab space station began its uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere. terrestrial.
Although NASA has attempted to maneuver Skylab to avoid populated areas and land in the southern Indian Ocean, such efforts have only been partially successful.
People around the world speculated where the remains of the space station would end up, but no one could have imagined that much of the debris would fall on Esperance, a city of just 10,000 people located southeast of Perth.
In the event, Skylab disintegrated much closer to Earth than NASA expected – and quite a bit of metal ended up scattered around Esperance. The city even issued an ironic fine to NASA for waste, which it never seriously expected to receive. However, a California radio DJ named Scott Barley took up the lawsuit and raised enough money from his listeners to pay NASA’s fine in 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the historic reentry.
Discovering Skylab:
Although Skylab spent more than 6 years traveling the Earth, the orbital workshop was only manned for approximately 24 weeks. Skylab was not equipped with any landing controls, so its re-entry would have been unpredictable.
The Esperance Museum contains numerous exhibits from the disintegration of Skylab, including oxygen tanks, a freezer, nitrogen spheres, circuit boards, and pieces of insulating foam.
The San Francisco examiner is offering a $10,000 USD prize to the first person to deliver a piece of Skylab to their office. Stan Thornton, a 17-year-old from Esperance, hopped on a flight to San Francisco and won the prize.
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