On July 12th 1979 America’s space station, Skylab fell out of orbit, broke up on re-entry and rained pieces down on Esperance, Australia. The event is one of Esperance’s major claims to fame. The local government issued littering fines on NASA for the scattered debris.
The Skylab was the United States’ first space station that operated in the 1970s. In 1979 NASA announced that Skylab was falling out of orbit. While there was some panic around the world over it crashing there were only some small pieces of Skylab debris that fell in Western Australia.local
The San Francisco Examiner newspaper offered a $10,000 cash reward for anyone who’d bring in a piece of the debris within three days of the crash. With the help of the town of Esperance seventeen-year-old Stan Thornton flew to America and brought the newspaper debris pieces that had hit his house. He flew in within the deadline and was able to claim the prize before anyone else.
The Intentional Travelers 