Skylab, Esperance

esperance

"We have the news that Skylab has splashed down safely in the South Atlantic."

That was the radio report just before midnight on July 11, 1979 (33 years ago this week) yet seconds later residents of Esperance, Western Australia, were dumbfounded to see it shooting across the sky. Almost immediately a sonic boom shook the town, jolting many awake. They wrongly assumed it was the noise of Skylab crashing.

In fact the debris from the 75 tonne US Space Program's first space station narrowly missed hitting the small town, pop. 3000. It showered instead on farms and bushland beyond Esperance and to the east as far as outback Rawlinna.

Local lad Stan Thornton picked up some pieces from his roof and caught the first flight out of Perth, following the San Francisco Examiner's offer of $10,000 reward for the first piece to be handed in to their headquarters.

He was lucky his haul was portable enough. Some of the 'space junk' would have made a mess of anyone in the way. The Esperance Municipal Museum has a comprehensive display with some fragments as big as a fridge, although the largest piece is on display at the United States Space & Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Purely by coincidence the annual Miss Universe pageant was held just days later, on July 20, 1979 in Perth. Unsurprisingly, the large piece of Skylab displayed on the stage almost upstaged the competing lovelies.

Where: Esperance is in the far south-east of Western Australia, 725 kilometres or about a 7.5 hour drive from Perth.

Did you know? As a result of the event, the Shire of Esperance fined the United States $400 for littering.

More information....

Add comment

Www.Foodandtravel.Com.Au - Australia

Best Food Travel Website 2021

foodandtravel.com.au has been awarded

Best Antipodean Culinary Travel Expert, 2019

by the prestigious UK-based magazine...

Ready for a taste treat?

Embark on an unforgettable culinary adventure through the vibrant tapestry of Malaysia.

Led by the charismatic Malaysian ex-pat Chef Wanitha Tanasingam, this intimate journey promises to tantalize your taste buds and ignite your senses, sending you home with memories to last a lifetime.

Find out more....

The flipside of travel...

How not all of it is joyous.