In mid-July 1979, the US’s first space station, Skylab, plummeted through the Earth’s atmosphere and scattered debris over the Indian Ocean and sparsely populated parts of Western Australia, creating an international media event. Ground controllers planned to adjust Skylab’s descent to more than 800 miles southeast of Cape Town, South Africa, although they expected much of it would burn up before it hit. This didn’t happen, however, and NASA said the odds of the station hitting a human upon its reentry were 1 in 152, and the odds of it hitting a city were 1 in 7.
After it’s crash, there were several reports of Australia residents finding debris near their homes, including one teenager who turned a piece of the debris in to the San Francisco Examiner for a $10,000 reward.
