July 11 Anniversary -- Skylab (U.S. space station) debris rains down on Australia

from SKYLINE dot-org / rocket sum / : It was discovered that Skylab operational systems were working well, and NASA remained optimistic that the space station could be saved. But time was clearly running out. The effort to save Skylab ended abruptly in December, 1978. NASA had run into development problems with the Space Shuttle Main Engines, and it became clear that even the first Space Shuttle launch would not occur until well after the solar winds had increased atmospheric drag and forced the Skylab orbit to decay beyond hope of rescue. On December 15, 1978 NASA Administrator Robert Frosch informed President Jimmy Carter that Skylab could not be saved, and that NASA would attempt to guide the space station to a controlled re-entry as far away from populated areas as possible. Skylab, however, would refuse to die quietly. At 3:45 a.m. EDT on July 11, 1979 controllers at the NASA Johnson Space Center commanded Skylab to tumble, hoping the space station would break apart upon re-entry. It did not, however, break apart as expected, and at 12:37 p.m. EDT on July 11, 1979 Skylab rained debris near Perth, Australia._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ http://www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/shuttle-program.html