On July 12, 1979, Skylab fell back to the earth. Today is the anniversary. I would have never dreamed I would remember it years on.
In 1979 I was twelve and heard the news that a space workstation named Skylab was falling to Earth. It was exciting for me…I was hoping that a piece of it would fall near so I could touch something that had been flying through space. When you are a kid that is a big deal. Well, it still would be to me.
That didn’t happen because unless I was Australian I wasn’t going to see any debris. In school, our science teacher went over the event and I do remember people wearing Skylab t-shirts, hats, and buttons. Everyone was looking up hoping to see something…anything. Some kids were scared they were going to get crushed…that is when I learned that what goes up must go down.
Watching the news… some people were panicking and…some partying. This is from Newsweek in 1979
In various parts of the country, wags painted X’s on their neighbors’ roofs or sported T-shirts with targets on the back. Entrepreneurs sold plastic helmets and Skylab survival kits compete with bags for collecting stray parts of the spacecraft and letters suing NASA for damages. “I don’t know how much we’re making, but we’re having fun,” said Steven Danzig, 25, of Bloomington, Ind., who sold more than 20,000 such kits. In Washington, a bar called Mr. Smith’s sold a concoction dubbed the Chicken Little Special.
Around the U.S., there were Skylab parties to coincide with the crash, and betting pools on precisely when or where the debris would come streaking back to earth.
Skylab was designed to go up but not come back down. It was launched in 1973 and was occupied for almost 24 weeks. There was a lot of time and money spent on how to get it up there but not much time on how to get it down. It only had a 9-year life span, to begin with. In 1979 it was clear that Skylab was rapidly descending orbit.
On July 12, 1979, Skylab came back to earth in the Indian Ocean and in Western Australia. No one was injured by the falling debris.
The San Francisco Examiner offered a $10,000 ($45,309.60 today) reward for anyone bringing a part of Skylab to their office. They knew it wasn’t going to hit America so it was a safe bet they would not have to pay…but Stan Thornton…an Australian truck driver heard about the reward, grabbed a piece of debris, and jumped on a plane to San Francisco and got the reward.
Stan Thornton collecting his $10.000
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I had forgotten all about this! Now that you rebooted mine memory I recall Canada was a probable landing site. I don’t think we had the same level of hype however.
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It was all over the news here and that was the reason teachers were all over it.
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Like Randy said, I remember that now but had totally forgotten it. I didn’t know there were commemorative shirts and all that though…then again, there were lots of those here for that eclipse earlier this year so why not?
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People were making a joke out of it and making some money lol….but I remember it well because we heard it from Cronkite and other news agencies and our teachers.
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Whatever goes up, comes back down because gravity sucks.
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I’m surprised it’s still up there
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No it’s down now….it hit Australia…
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Oh I see. Fair dinkum
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I was just shy of 2 when this happened so I can’t claim to remember it, but I do recall hearing about it later on. Pretty crazy stuff.
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I well remember it falling. I was 30. Years earlier the sky had fallen on Chicken-Licken’s head so I wasn’t afraid! (I presume you had the same kid’s story of Chicken Licken??)
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Chicken Little yes….I had to look that up.
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I do remember some of the fuss around the falling of the Skylab, but I guess it was much less intense in South America then it was in North America.
Very interesting post; thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for reading…I think I remember it because of my age at the time.
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I was a bit younger than you; I am a 1969 model.
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lol…two years is two years!
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That trucker Stan Thornton was no mug! But he’s lucky to have found anything, Western Australia is a whole lot of hot barren mostly deserted desert. Lots of nothing as far as the eye can see. The event itself was a bit ‘meh’ here. Still, its amazing how it was big over there- what would it be like now with Social Media around, spinning every crazy tin-hat scenario imaginable?
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Oh now it would be twice is big…I think obbverse my age and the fact I was in 6th grade at time plus Cronkite talking about it…it really registered with me.
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10 grand is 10 grand! How did he get that on the plane? Cool read
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Thats a good question! He wouldn’t have shipped it…it would have taken 10 grand to get it there lol.
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Wow, t-shirts, plastic helmets, survival kits? Kind of amusing if you think about it – and that some people actually bought that stuff! I don’t recall any “Skylab mania” in Germany. 🙂
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You know what? I wish I had some of that stuff now lol.
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I’be always had better things to worry about than space junk falling on my head.
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Well when you are 12….it takes on another meaning!
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I would have loved the challenge then.
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