In 1979, Earth was gripped by Skylab fever—or rather, Skylab panic. NASA's first orbital space station, a massive 77-ton laboratory, was falling out of orbit. NASA assured the public that the odds of debris hitting a human were 1 in 152, calculating that Skylab would disintegrate over the South Indian Ocean.
However, atmospheric math is notoriously fickle. Unanticipated solar storm activity had heated up Earth's upper atmosphere, causing higher drag and accelerating Skylab's descent far faster than engineers predicted. NASA tried to roll the station to push its crash site further into the ocean, but a mathematical error in calculating the drag coefficient delayed the maneuver.
On July 11, 1979, Skylab broke apart during re-entry. Instead of splashing harmlessly into deep waters, the sonic booms echoed over Western Australia as glowing debris rained down on the remote Shire of Esperance. Oxygen tanks, structural beams, and even a heavy iron safe slammed into the desert scrubland.
Fortunately, no humans or livestock were injured, but the local council was less than impressed. Esperance issued NASA an official $400 fine for littering, which NASA politely ignored for 30 years until a California radio host raised funds to finally pay off the space agency's debt in 2009. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old local, Stan Thornton, scooped up a piece of the station from his lawn, rushed to San Francisco, and won a prize from the San Francisco Examiner after presenting his authentic space trash.