Subsequent shuttle missions would focus on overhauling Skylab, making repairs and replacing various components. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. The U.S. space station - SKYLAB - hurtles toward the Indian sub-continent. The decision was taken to let Skylab fall. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. Most of it did, but parts of it came down over Western Australia. Ground control had struggled to coax Skylab into a position that would cause the spacecraft to break up over the Indian Ocean. Simon Watts heard from two residents of Esperance, a remote coastal town which bore the brunt of the impact. Skylab news coverage was amped up and sensationalized, merchandise was hawked everywhere, and bookmakers took bets on when and where the 77.5-ton space station would hit the Earth's atmosphere. The U.S. space station - SKYLAB - hurtles toward the Indian sub-continent. That orbit decayed, though, causing Skylab to reenter the atmosphere. In 1979 the world held its breath as the American space station Skylab, re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. In 1979 it was clear that Skylab was rapidly descending orbit. And in July 1979 Debris from Skylab scattered across the Indian Ocean and western Austrailia. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. It also hit the atmosphere at a shallower angle than intended, resulting in bigger pieces, a number of which managed to fall to Earth intact. Albert Hammond – It Never Rains In Southern California. 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.Courtesy NASA 1979: The Skylab space station reenters Earth's atmosphere after six years in orbit. No one was injured by the falling debris. https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/july-11-1979-skylab-breaks-14000305 Turn on desktop notifications for breaking news. Skylab launched May 14, 1973 and orbited the Earth 2,249 times before it fell to the Earth’s surface, landing in a remote part of Australia on July 11, 1979. WASHINGTON, Wednesday, July 11—Space officials said early this morning that the doomed Skylab space station was heading toward a re‐entry into the earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Where is…The Starship Enterprise Model Now? Recently leaked KGB spy sattelite footage from the old Soviet Union. The Chinese Tiangong-1 space lab that plummeted into the South Pacific tonight, might have some of you may remembering a spacecraft with strong Huntsville connections that came crashing back to Earth in 1979.