In 1979 I was twelve and hearing the news that a space workstation named Skylab was falling to earth.

Skylab did not contain anything radioactive but still created much hysteria about where it would land. In Mark Landsman's Skylab, the young protagonist spends the summer of 1979 certain that the space station Skylab - then falling back to Earth, though no expert could say where - is about to land smack on top of him. On July 12, 1979, Skylab was falling back to the earth. Related Content. The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and as Skylab began to make its descent in the early hours of July 12, 1979, it became clear the Scottish proverb was ringing true. I blogged this a couple of years ago…but today is the anniversary. In Annie Hall, the young Alvy Singer memorably worries about the universe's expanding. The station met the thick part of Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, 1979. The Skylab space station had a few good years in space — fewer than NASA wanted and not as good as NASA wanted — before falling to Earth in a rain of debris. And in July 1979 Debris from Skylab scattered across the Indian Ocean and western Austrailia. A Soviet satellite had crashed to Earth in 1978 leaving much radioactive debris in Canada. The decision was taken to let Skylab fall. Dozens of residents reported seeing debris falling near Kalgoorlie, 370 miles (595km) northeast of Perth. Debris fell over a wide area of the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. It might almost make him less miserable if it did. Skylab fell back to Earth on 11 July 1979 and while most of it fell into the sea, quite a bit of the debris rained down on the Western Australian town of Esperance and surrounding areas. With no further missions Skylab’s orbit slowly deteriorated until it reentered the atmosphere and crashed to earth in Australia in 1979. Skylab began falling apart about ten miles above Earth. No one was injured by falling parts, but the Australian government did see fit to fine the United States $400 for littering.