Launched in 1973, Skylab was America's first orbital space station. Weighing 77 tons, the massive station completed thousands of orbits before being abandoned in 1974. NASA originally planned to send the Space Shuttle in the late 1970s to boost Skylab into a higher orbit or safely deorbit it into the ocean.
However, solar flare activity unexpectedly expanded Earth's upper atmosphere, creating increased atmospheric drag that rapidly decayed Skylab's orbit years ahead of schedule. Lacking thrusters for precise remote control, NASA engineers watched helplessly as the station spiraled downward in mid-1979. Global panic ensued as media outlets calculated the odds of Skylab striking populated centers, prompting news outlets to offer cash prizes for recovered debris.
On July 11, 1979, Skylab broke apart during re-entry. NASA had calculated a target crash site in the southeastern Indian Ocean, but mathematical errors in drag estimates delayed the final disintegration. As a result, large chunks of scorched metal and oxygen tanks rained down across the remote Esperance region and the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia.
Remarkably, no people or livestock were injured. The local Shire of Esperance cheekily issued NASA a $400 littering fine, which remained unpaid for thirty years until a California radio host raised funds to settle it in 2009. A local teenager named Stan Thornton rushed to collect pieces from his yard and flew to San Francisco to claim a $10,000 prize from the San Francisco Examiner.