December 12, 2025 • 47 mins
In 1979, the world watched as NASA’s 77-ton space station made its fiery plunge back to Earth. When Skylab broke apart over a sleepy Australian town, the falling debris set off a global media frenzy. This is the story of the night the sky actually fell — and the teenager who became an improbable hero.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The people of Esperance, Australia will be the first to
tell you that not a whole lot happens there. It's
a quiet, farming and fishing town where the sheep usually
outnumber the people. But in the chilly early hours of
July twelfth, nineteen seventy nine, at around midnight, a handful
(00:25):
of locals crane their necks up to the sky and
see something they've never seen before, that no one has
ever seen before, not in Esperance, not anywhere. A pyrotechnics
show among the stars, full of flashing, pulsating lights and
sounds that reverberate so deeply you can feel it in
(00:48):
your shoes.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It was like it was like fireworks back it was
the noise that came with it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Joe Norman is among those gathered on a high bluff
over looking Esperance Bay. She was barely seventeen years old
then witnessing what looks like the apocalypse. Another observer would
later describe it as a train.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Falling out of the sky while on fire. That was thought,
Oh my god, why laud of than thunder?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
And that's when everyone we all thought, oh, holly crap,
this is actually going to fall on us. You felt
like you could just reach up and catch it. That's
how close it felt.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
What Joe sees that night is a spectacle that the
entire world has been anticipating, with a combination of amusement
and fear, the fall of sky Lab, a space station
nine stories tall and weighing over seventy seven tons, plummeting
from its orbit and re entering the Earth's atmosphere even
(01:57):
after burning up hundreds or even thousands of flaming metal
chunks rained down upon the planet. What Joe doesn't know
is that this shower of superheated space debris will soon
steer her life in a very unexpected direction. Because, for once,
(02:18):
Chicken Little is right. The sky really is falling. This
is very special episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm your host,
Danish Schwartz, and this is Skylab is Falling.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Welcome back to very special episodes. I'm Jason English, She's
Danish Swartz. Hey, he's Aaron Burnette.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Yoh.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
And now, as someone who lived through the New Jersey
drone invasion last year, I can't imagine what would happen
if what happened in nineteen seventy nine. Where to happen? Today.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
But imagine what it would be like on Twitter remember
the peak yes Twitter era, like back when Twitter was good.
Imagine how much fun that day would be on Twitter
if everyone thought that they might be about to be
crushed by a piece of a space station.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Also the amount of like because we have all the
cameras on phones now, not a video we would have
seen of this because all the descriptions sound incredible. I
would love to see this film from all these different locations.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Now, no spoilers, but there is a fun newspaper subplot
coming to this one. We love our legacy media stories here,
so look out for that.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Yes, respect.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I mean this really is sort of like All the
President's Men if it involved a publicity scheme, if instead
of investigating Watergate it was just having fun.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
I loved that there was like a branded stunt pr
event like we would recognize today, but so pure, so quaint.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
This is either gonna kill you or you're gonna win
a cash prize.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
But either way it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
If the US was intoxicated by the accomplishments of space
travel in the nineteen sixties, by the late nineteen seventies,
it had hit the hangover stage. Up until this point,
the space race had brought mostly positive things, bragging rights,
technological advancements, moon boots, and even the Dustbuster. But now
(04:25):
our ambitions were threatening to drop a two ton lead
lined vault on someone's head, a piece of space junk
traveling so fast that NASA estimated it could create a
hole in the ground one hundred feet deep. The vault
was part of Skylab, an ambitious two point six billion
(04:48):
dollar galactic laboratory launched by NASA in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
In addition to.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Experiments, it was also a chance to see how humans
would respond to extended stays in outer space, where travel
could be measured in weeks instead of days. Think of
it as a kind of cosmic motel six.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
We used it as a platform for designing our future
space stations as well. That was the first time we
learned that if you're up there for about thirty days
or ninety days, actually is that healthy young man would
start to lose bone mass. This calcium.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Doctor Bonnie Dunbar is a professor of aerospace engineering as
well as an astronaut with several Shuttle missions under her belt.
Growing up on a cattle ranch, in Washington, Doctor Dunbar
didn't have a TV, just one radio station, books, and
the wide skies to stir her imagination. As a kid,
(05:52):
she saw the Soviet satellite Sputnik flicker among the stars
and was hooked. Doctor Dunbar went on to join NASA.
To her, Skylab was a major step forward in space exploration.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It was the bridge.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Between the Apollo missions which put humans on the Moon,
and the Space Shuttle missions, which sent cruise up for
advanced explorations. Skylab informed those later missions, giving us what
remains some of the most valuable information about how we
endure zero gravity.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
To NASA, Skylab.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Could help us go beyond, way beyond where humankind had
ever been.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
We could study technology and people in a weightless environment
and understand it well enough to eventually send people not
just to the Moon for a long periods of time,
but to Mars.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Though it was the site of three successful missions, by
the mid nineteen seventies, Skylab was becoming a headache. It
was damaged during launch when part of its heat shield
tore off, compromising its solar energy capacity and making it
prone to overheating. Repairs were made, though one solar wing
(07:10):
was permanently lost. Lacking thrusters, it couldn't propel itself. Skylab
began drifting out of orbit faster than anticipated. It was
NASA's version of a jinky car, one without brakes, that
just keeps rolling downhill.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Because when you're in ers orbit, you're actually orbit continues
to degrade because it's not a perfect vacuum. There's a
few i call them random molecules out there that create drag,
and as you increase the drag, you decrease velocity, and
when you decrease velocity, you start to fall back into
the Earth. So that's what Skylab was doing.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Unable to take control of Skylab, NASA did the next
best thing it could.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It powered Skylab down.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
With Skylab essentially in extended stay parking for the next
several years, talk at NASA turned to how to deal
with its inevitable re entry. For a time that seemed
a long way off. Some estimates pegged it as late
as nineteen eighty three, but Skylab kept descending. By nineteen
(08:24):
seventy eight, it became clear that Skylab was coming home,
which led to a series of well, let's call it
creative problem solving proposal. One nuke Skylab into oblivion, rendering
it harmless. A bad idea for any number of reasons,
(08:45):
the major one being that launching a nuke, even at
our own technology, was in gross violation of international treaties.
Proposal to send an F fifteen jet controlled by computer
into a supersonic climb to eighty thousand feet high enough
(09:05):
to launch a non nuclear rocket. Would that have been awesome? Yeah, sure,
but also pointless since you'd simply be creating more debris
falling onto Earth.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Proposal three, use another.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Vessel like the Space Shuttle to reboost it back into
orbit like a dog nudging a ball with its nose,
but NASA budget issues had hampered the Shuttle's schedule. A
joint rescue mission with the Soviet Union was discussed, but
there simply wasn't enough time to match Russia's spacetech with Americas.
(09:47):
It's sort of like trying to fit a lego in
with a megablox. That left just one other option, except
Skylab was coming back and do everything possible to mitigate
the damage. So in late nineteen seventy eight, the agency
announced they would permit Skylab to fall back to Earth.
(10:10):
To the lay person hearing that a seventy seven ton
projectile would smack into Earth prompts some questions. The first,
are we doomed? NASA crunched some numbers. While there were
plenty of variables, it looked as though there would be
a one in seven chance at least one piece of
(10:32):
Skylab would land on a major city, a one in
one hundred and fifty two chance of it striking a
random person, and a one in six hundred billion chance
of a piece of the debris striking any one specific person.
Even so, the US government went so far as to
make plans for mass casualties out.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Of an abundance of caution.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
While some were justifiably on nerved by those numbers, others
had a different reaction. They turned sky Labs return into
a party. As word spread of Skylab's looming arrival, some
painted bullseyes on their roofs. A giant baseball glove was
(11:18):
constructed in Cape Canaveral in Missouri. A one time fallout
shelter with Cold War canned food was converted to a
falling space Lab refuge. A couple in India named their
newborn you guessed it, Skylab, And of course there was
merch t shirts and survival kits for sale In Times Square,
(11:41):
a New York eatery offered free meals for life to
anyone struck, presuming they lived.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
At least one.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Person hosted a sky Lab party with cocktails and protective helmets.
It was doomsday with a mostly smiley face. While the
national media breathlessly covered this story, in San Francisco, the
Examiner and the Chronicle saw an opening. Two rival dailies,
(12:11):
desperate for readers, seized on Skylab for a late Space
age publicity stunt.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
San Francisco was reminiscent of the dying embers of good
old style competitive newspapering.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
That's Jeff Jarvis, currently a visiting professor at Stonybrook University.
Jeff is the author of The Gutenberg Parentheses, a look
at how storytelling has evolved from the early days of
print to digital media. Back in the late nineteen seventies,
though Jeff was a twenty three year old just getting
started in the newspaper game, it was not going well.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
I had gone to a Frank Sinatric benefit concert. I
didn't think it was so hot. I said so on
my column, And the next night or the night after,
at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California's stopped
singing my Way to call me a bum. I wasn't
there to witness this momentous event. I heard about it
on the radio the next morning to Dannure crash my car.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
When not being heckled by Frank Sinatra, the rookie columnist
at the San Francisco Examiner was in hot competition with
legendary gossip writer Herb Kane at the Chronicle.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
He was king of the town. Every bit of gossip
went to him, and I was the fifty seventh sacrificial
lamb in the Examiner against Herb Caane.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Known as mister San Francisco. The future Pulitzer Prize winning
Kane was generally beloved. Heck, even the Zodiac Killer once
called herbout by name in one of the letters he
sent to the Chronicle. No serial murderers were writing to Jeff,
which meant he had to come up with material on
his own.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
I was going to be the young guy who was
going to write a column six days a week, but
all the gossip went to Herb. I only got the droppings,
and so I ended up having to find ways to
write features six days a week, fifteen hundred words a day.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
The Examiner and the Chronicle shared a composing room, printing press,
even a Sunday paper, but they were still mortal enemies.
Every headline, every penny in the corner newsbox mattered. So
when Skylab fever hit the front pages, the Chronicle fired
the first shot.
Speaker 7 (14:23):
And so one day I went out in the composing
room and I saw that the Chronicle a week hence
was going to offer Skylab insurance to its readers. You
had to die, you had to lose a limb, but
if you did, the Chronicle would pay off. I came
back in the newsroom and I told my colleagues what
they were doing, and we immediately started brainstorming about what
(14:45):
we could do in response. The key here was that
the Chronicle's offer was going to be about a week
in the future. We decided we could rush and we
could get something in sooner.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
The Chronicle promised one hundred thousand dollars to anyone maimed
by Skylab, presuming you were a Chronicle subscriber. Jeff's editors
wanted to top it by essentially saying you didn't need
to be dismembered to win, and.
Speaker 7 (15:16):
We scrashed our heads and figured out what we could do,
and one of us suggested that, well, maybe we could
give it a reward if somebody actually delivered a piece
of Skylab to the office.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Their idea skip the insurance offer a bounty ten thousand
dollars to the first person who could bring an actual
piece of Skylab to the newsroom within seventy.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Two hours of its crash.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
That's the equivalent of roughly forty five thousand dollars today,
a lot of money and a real risky stunt for
the Examiner, but the papers editor didn't think he'd ever
have to pay out.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
I was tasked with calling NASA, and NASA absolutely assured
me that this was going to fall in the ocean,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Unless someone was willing to wade into the ocean. It
sounded like the paper would get a whole lot of
publicity for very little risk. The Examiner went all in,
setting up a Skylab desk in the lobby.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
The publicity person, who at the time was married to
the publisher, put up a big check over it and
Skylab and put somebody, some poor soul I don't remember who,
into an alien costume.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Almost immediately people began fishing for the reward. One guy
presented a nerf ball with an obvious coat of silver
spray paint. Someone mailed Jeff a tire iron with a
handwritten label saying it was Skylab.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Part three three, four, four, five six six six' TWO.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
A a woman phoned saying she found a piece of
yellow metal in her. Yard, maybe she, said with a
trace of hope in her, voice it had fallen Off.
Skylab early attracting ranksters and would be fraudsters was a,
feature not a. Bug the examiner wanted people talking about the,
(17:08):
contest and it also Gave jeff plenty of fodder for his.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
Column this was the last gasp of a good old
fashioned competitive newspaper. Fight it was nothing but, fun but
we had fun with.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
It While jeff kept filing columns on the increasing, Weirdness
washington made. PLANS nasa urged people to duck into basements
at the first strange sound across the. Country medical, teams,
firefighters even lawyers were on. Standby NASA's crash team was
(17:42):
ready to chase the world's biggest piece of litter wherever it.
Fell but this wasn't just. Cleanup it was. History no
one had ever watched a space station come home in,
flames and now it was on its way. Fast skylab
(18:06):
has long been idling two hundred and seventy miles Above,
earth but By june of nineteen seventy, nine it's down
to one hundred and sixty three miles and growing closer
by the. Day by this, point Doctor dunbar is a
flight controller AT.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Nasa she's tasked with.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Monitoring skylab from a small control room At Johnson Space
center In, Houston.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Texas for Doctor.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Dunbar and her, colleagues this accelerating descent means keeping track
of its movement around the, clock which is. Tricky on,
AVERAGE nasa can connect To skylab for only a few
minutes out of every hour and a.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Half during those brief, contacts.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The station would report on its vital systems AND nasa
could give it instructions in engineering, terms ask how it's,
doing and record the.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Answers we were seven days on and then two days,
off and we would rotate, shifts so one shift you
might be on from eight to, four and the next
shift from four to, midnight and then so. Forth so
for nine MONTHS i was in this rotating shift flight controller.
Mode make SURE i could sleep during the, DAY i
(19:19):
put tinfoil on my bedroom.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Windows keep in mind Doctor dunbar and her colleagues are
trying to influence the station's movement while it's hundreds of
miles up in, space all this using nineteen seventy nine.
Technology match conversions are mostly done on.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Paper there's no sophisticated, hardware just the world's highest stakes video.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
Game if you think of a, pencil if you've got
the pointing in facing the direction it's, going there's less surface,
area there less. Drag so if you could change the
drag A skylab by changing it's, orientation then you could
kind of manage its altitude if you. Will but you
(20:05):
had to balance that against the fact that its power
source was its solar rays get pointed to the, sun,
Right so if you always pointed the solar rays to The,
sun then you might not be in the best attitude
for managing the.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Drag that was.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
The trick balance both Or skylab drops. Sooner at, FIRST
nasa predicted the orbiter would break up over an, ocean
but as the hours tick, down new calculations show something.
Alarming it might pass Over, canada maybe even main The
(20:41):
skylab team has to make decisions on the, fly digging
up old tech manuals that hadn't been opened in.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Years we didn't know this was still all learning environment
for us first time the orbited big mass like.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
This then comes the final trans.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Mission skylab was Entering earth's atmosphere speed hundreds of miles an,
hour destination still. Unknown THE faa AND norads scramble to
keep tabs on signals going, offline not because of technical,
problems but because systems are literally being.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Incinerated and then you hear people, saying, WELL i just
lost data from this solar ray that type of, thing
so you know where it. Is you've GOT dar round radar.
Contact you're watching to see what systems are, disappearing because
they're actually disintegrating in the year's.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Atmosphere the mammoth station begins burning up in a multimillion
dollar fireworks. Show it's windmill, shaped solar wings torn away
like the wings of a. Fly the telescope mount rips,
free then the control, center the docking, port each piece
vanishing in flames within minutes seventy seven and tons of
(22:01):
meadow becomes light and, smoke falling Toward. Earth it's enough
to make even the calculating methodical crew AT nasa feel.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
MOVED i actually saw the last pass from the roof
of The Emission Control, center but it went Over houston
and so it was starting.
Speaker 7 (22:22):
To get a little.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Bright you, know all of the airspace had been cleared
around the globe on its orbit. Trajectory AND i will
tell you that it was a little bit emotional in
that last.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Past there was a sense of melancholy that Maybe skylab
wasn't the only thing winding.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Down there was a feeling there, that, boys is this the.
End we've canceled The apollo program prematurely because they thought
the public wasn't, interested and so there was a, sense,
BOY i hope this is not the.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
End half a world away From bonnie and her, crew
teen year Old Joe norman and her, boyfriend truck Driver Stan,
thornton drive to a hilltop over the bay In esperance
in Western australia and join a crowd staring up at
the Cold july.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Sky quite a group of us all decided to go
up there and wait to see if we could see,
anything not thinking that we ever, would but we sure.
Did there were so many people.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Up they.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Whiting around Midnight australian time On july, eleventh nineteen seventy,
nine houses begin to, shake windows, rattle and horses.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Scamper frightened dogs circle.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And howl As skylab makes its unlikely. ENTRANCE nasa had
originally put the odds of Hitting australia at just two,
percent But skylab was nothing if not.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Unpredictable, yeah it was so.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Beautiful it was really really, APRECY i, guess not like
a shooting, star because there were millions of millions of
little pieces breaking up. Here was very.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Spectacular from the, hilltop they watched as giant balls of
fire turned to smaller balls of, fire as white light turns,
red as pieces of a two point six billion dollar
engineering marvel burn into. ASH nasa later estimates that about
five hundred pieces fell To, earth from tiny chunks to
(24:31):
an oxygen tank the size of a. Truck by twelve
thirty seven, am it's. Over the sky goes dark. Again
joe And stan drive back down the, hill thinking that
was more or less the end of.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
It after we.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
All calm down and, thought, okay that's it, now and
then we all just dissipated went.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
HOME i went home to Mar.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Place stan went high to.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
His the next, Morning Stan thornton walks into his backyard
to find dozens of charred bits scattered in the, grass
about coin, sized just a couple inches or less in.
Diameter stan knows that whatever this, is it just got.
Here the yard had been cleaned the day.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Before thy were, roll you, know very excited because on
the back law AND i had found the little pieces of,
chocoal WHICH i don't know how many they were, altogether
BECAUSE i didn't say it before they collected.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It all local officials confirm debris has landed Near. Esperance radio
stations buzz with rumors of wreckage in the. Desert could
these pieces really be From? Skylab stan is only sure
about one. Thing he has to go to, work so
(25:51):
a friend volunteers to take the chunks to a chemist
for further. Investigation the good news the pieces aren't radio,
act but that was about all he could, say not
knowing what kind of MATERIALS nasa used to Construct. Skylab
searching for more, Information stan contexts local emergency.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Services they don't.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Have a lot of advice to offer, either but they
do Tell stan that a newspaper In San francisco is
offering ten thousand dollars for a real piece of. Skylab
stan delivers beer for a. Living ten grand could be
more than a year's, salary but he's never been out
of the country. Before he now has what amounts to
(26:38):
ten thousand dollars in casino chips in his proverbial, pocket
but he has to get to a casino window thousands
of miles.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Away stan is in.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
LUCK a local radio station helps him get an expedited passport,
overnight and by mourning stands on a Swanky quantus plane
with a bag full of burnt metal and a toothbrush he.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Thought of got. Whisked the way was very for.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Real you just kept thinking what they actually sent A
lea jet down From. Perth we hadn't even heard of
what A lea jet.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Was back In San, francisco The examiner office is buzzing
with news About ausy treasure hunters combing for. Scraps some
are reportedly headed To San francisco to claim the, reward
But stan's early start has him leading the.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Pack when he lands.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
In San, francisco he breathes his first sigh of. Relief
he's the first and only person to. Show reporters swarm
around the, shaggy wide eyed teenager a limo courtesy Of
Quantas whisks stand to the offices of The, examiner where
he hands over a brown leather shaving bag full of
(27:58):
what could be worth more than gold by the. Ounce
jeff gets his first look at the source of all the.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Hysteria he's not.
Speaker 7 (28:07):
Impressed they looked like charcoal. Briquettes after doing the steak that, tracks.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yes jeff looked like it's the charcoal from the. Barbecue,
really and we did joke about, it saying It i'll
do any. Abbit the next or ibis just throwing eat
chocoal over.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
The P, still this wasn't a beauty contest for rocks
with a theatrical. Flourish the twelve lumps are moved to
an armored suitcase and whisked off to A nasa lab In,
Huntsville alabama for extensive testing that's going to take some.
Time and now it's up To jeff and the examiner
(28:48):
to chaperon the, kid and.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
So there's going to be a waiting period while that goes.
On and so we realized that we had in our
care a teenager who was far away from, home no
escort at. All he came with at most a gym.
Bag he had no clothes to speak, of certainly no,
suitcase and was it a very unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Environment stan being a fish out of water is good For,
jeff whose primary job was to ratchet up suspense for his.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Readers no easy.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Feat stan is a nice, guy you, all just not
what you'd call.
Speaker 7 (29:28):
Charismatic he didn't ever have much to say AND i,
had well the whole time we're waiting for the artifact
to be verified BY, NASA i had to get daily
columns out of. Him stan was, delightful wonderful, kid but
the longest sentences he tended to use were up and.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Nope jeff takes him to see The San Jose earthquakes
pro soccer team he. Loathed stan on a helicopter tour
Of San. Francisco Mayor Dianne feinstein gives him.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
The key to the.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
City he has his first Big mac from. McDonald's stan
even gets to hold a monkey being used in the
filming of a. Movie jeff takes him to see a movie.
Too of, course It's, moonraker.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
And he went along with. It he was get, Along,
Stan he was, great but it Was, milkin a dead,
cow trying to get any quotes out of him to
fill a. Column, Well stan did this, today And stan
had nothing to, Say and that's kind of HOW i
had to live that week or.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
So While stan calls his, parents who worry that he
might be the victim of random violence in THE, Us
jeff keeps CALLING, nasa hoping for any.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Update stan Likes James.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Bond he didn't mind the, monkey but what he really
wants is to get his money and go.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
HOME i was Calling, Huntsville alabama to find out is
this thing certified? Yet what's taking so?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Long after a week of gamma rays AND x rays
and treating the barbecue briquettes like the charred scrolls Of,
Vesuvius jeff's office phone, RINGS nasa finally has.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
NEWS nasa was scratching its collective head over What stan had,
brought because it had, carbon that is to, say something
from a life, form And skylob was, Metal skylight was plastic.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Carbon that was.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Weird no astronauts had been on Board skylab when it
plummeted To, earth and presumably no aliens, either though you
can probably find a YouTube video Saying, Otherwise jeff didn't
Believe stan was a grifter trying to pass off a
painted nerf. Ball he was an, earnest quiet kid who
(31:46):
had traveled a long.
Speaker 7 (31:47):
Way, no our worst fear was that what If stan
had been taken by. Somebody stan was an innocent but
what if somebody had Slipped stan Counterfeit skylab?
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Bits so what DID nasa?
Speaker 7 (32:04):
Think there was one theory for a time that this
might have been astronaut.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Poop, FORTUNATELY nasa ran more tests and soon they Called
jeff with better. News stan had not traveled seven thousand
miles to deliver a stool.
Speaker 7 (32:27):
Sample they finally concluded that there was balsa wood insulation In,
skylab and that that's what these black pieces. Were they were,
Inside so they've been kind of the last to burn.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Up, yes this two point six billion dollar space station
used wood for thermal.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Insulation even, better.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
It was a type of wood that didn't grow In,
australia meaning it couldn't have come from anywhere but.
Speaker 7 (32:53):
Space AND i don't THINK nasa was necessarily one hundred
percent scientific, shore but at that POINT i think they
were sick of, it and our guy In huntspital was
sick of, it and we were ready to move, on
and SO nasa, said, yeah we certify.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
It, so after days of, waiting The San Francisco examiner
Cuts Stan thornton a check for ten thousand dollars cash in.
Hand stan wants to make a bee line back To,
esperans but the contagious weirdness Of skylab isn't quite. Over
(33:28):
while idling In San, Francisco stan Meets Dennis, sader a
furniture salesman From philly with grand. Aspirations sader Pitches stan
a tour Across america to show off his space. Debris
he'd even Fly stan's parents, over along with one other special.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
GUEST a telegram crime Which i've still got SAYING i
would like to Invite may and his mom and dad
to come over to the Stikesa stan was missing.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Us all for his role as space, Ambassador stan would
get ten thousand dollars in home furnishings and a chance
to earn a little scratch through additional. ENDORSEMENTS a spokesperson
For quantus speculates That stan's fifteen minutes could net him
over one hundred thousand dollars of nineteen seventy nine, cash
(34:24):
all this for a.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Quiet australian with space coal in his.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Pockets stan agrees and soon finds himself In philadelphia With
joe posing in a shop window with some end tables
in What sadder thought would be a fun photoshoot for his.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Store at one stage we were standing in the front
of the, window settings made lying on a, shiff staying the,
model you, know just showing off some of the. Furniture
it was very, weird very.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Weird stan hops on his overnight celebrity touring THE us
with his, mom dad And joe by his. Side they meet,
mayors appear on talk, shows even visit The White, house
Though President Jimmy carter couldn't make.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
It, no The president didn't mate with.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Us so we got a packet of each peanuts instead
and an ASHTRAY i, think and a couple of spoons
to say that we've visited The White. House well NOW
i think back AND i, think oh my, god that was.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Huge they visit The Smithsonian air And Space museum In
washington and A nasa facility In. Virginia stan sometimes dolling
out bits Of skylab like a sprinkling of magic. Dust
at The National air And space, museum they see a
full scale backup Of skylab's orbital workshop at a towering
(35:53):
forty eight Feet it puts the whole excursion in. Perspective
skylab had been. Abstracted it's tangible, pieces little more than
some peculiar looking bits of. Call but, this this was
what had actually come from.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Space it actually gave me the he be joutis BECAUSE
i kept, thinking oh my, god one of the wings
does not even sit in a four story, building and
this is what has fallen on us. All AND i
did remember, SAYING i, said oh my, god if people
knew the size of, this we would never have gone
(36:32):
and stood out and watched it go, over.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Thinking you, know nothing's going to happen to.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Us finally, Stands patience runs out his status as spaceboy,
tiresome and the whole group leaves for.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Home we were over it by, then because the cameras
would just follow you, everywhere and everything you said was
up on SOME tv.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Show, yeah it was quite. Bizarre back, Home stan buys
a car and a little.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Land he dules out some of his winnings to his
parents and his Friend, ray.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Who carried The skylab bits to the.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Chemist When Jeff jarvis followed up With stan a year.
Later he had about two thousand dollars. Left, unfortunately the
promised home furnishings never.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Arrived we picked it all, Out we went to the
warehouse and he let us cheat whatever we. Wanted they, said, yep,
yep we'll ship that out to. You but we never
heard from. Me and after where lesh think he was
a bit of a cornar drift.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Myself jeff reached out To satyr on their behalf to
ask about the, goods only to find that he was
heavily in debt and had fled.
Speaker 7 (37:45):
Town, well the problem for the furniture guy was that
he thought that he was going to get, barrels wasn't
he just like we. Did but the story was over
Once stan got the. Check he won the ten thousand.
Dollars kid makes. Good that was the end of the.
Narrative and in our attention deficit disorder industry that we
call media and, journalism everybody was on to the next.
(38:06):
Story it was, forgotten so he didn't get out of
it what he had.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Anticipated so after all that did The skylab contest actually
result in more readers of The.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
Examiner this was a good old time publicity, trick but
it made no real business. Difference it gave everybody a
lot of fun for a few.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Weeks as for the famous chronicle Columnist, Irbcane Jeff jarvis's
arch Newspaper, nemesis he was on vacation for most of
That june And, july missing virtually all of the. Excitement
so why Did skylab capture so much of the public's.
(38:50):
Imagination the closest thing we can compare it to is
a horror. Movie when we watch a teenager getting chased
through the woods by a psychotic, killer we feel a
kind of relief that were not, Them that things might be,
bad but Not machetti through the neck. Bad it's a
way to grapple with our fear of death without getting
(39:12):
too close to. It Maybe skylab was a kind of
rehearsal for. Doomsday something enormous was about to fall from the,
sky and for a moment we lost the illusion of
control and got a small taste of what it might
feel like to face the end of. Everything some people
(39:34):
coped by making light of, it painting targets on roofs
and selling.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Helmets others fled for.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Cover we probably got curious how it would feel to
face our, mortality and it turned out to be mostly.
Speaker 7 (39:51):
Okay american, news especially in the days since radio AND,
tv but also in, print has long been about the hot.
Story we think that The internet invented trending and. Memes,
no that's been the essence of journalism and news since
the steam powered press and scale came to. Press so
(40:14):
this was a story that was bound to get. Attention
thank god it. Didn't the satellite didn't kill anybody or injure,
anybody so we could have fun with. It couldn't we
use more stories like that these? DAYS i think we.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Could we too long for the days when the worst
thing imaginable was merely a superheated.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Led vault falling on.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Us of, course we wanted to talk To Stan, thornton
but he's as media a verse as he was in
nineteen seventy nine and didn't respond to our. Requests Jeff
jarvis tried to reach him a few years. Ago he
finally made a connection via. Email was he doing?
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Well? Yep anything else to, say, Nope.
Speaker 7 (40:58):
So it was good to just say are you? Doing
and great to talk after all these. Years AS i
was glad to close the loop there.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
As For joe And.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Stan they kept dating after getting back To, australia got
engaged at, eighteen and then drifted. Apart joe eventually moved To,
perth got, married and pursued a career in.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Education she keeps.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
A small chunk Of, skylab a souvenir of when the sky.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Fell WHEN i think Of, skylab the thing THAT i
remember seeing, it the actual witnessing of, it was something
out of this world THAT i don't think anyone will
ever experience, again BECAUSE i would never let it happen.
Again it would be blown out of the atmosphere before
it could even.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Happen there, are of, course conspiracy theories THAT nasa had
intentionally Steered skylab over soil In australia so they could
retrieve whatever pieces they. COULD a pretty lousy can inspirasee
as a lot of it landed in The Indian. Ocean
other scraps wound up in a Local esperans. Museum another
(42:08):
in Nearby Calgarly Town, hall was so big at over
six feet, long workers had to take the front doors
off to get it. Inside the mayor thought it would
be good for. Tourism one piece even wound up on
stage at The Miss universe pageant In perth next To Donnie.
Osmond President carter did eventually acknowledge the inconvenience To, australia
(42:35):
apologizing to the Country's Prime minister in a nod of
the good humor Of. Australians In esperand's official FIND nasa
four hundred dollars for. Littering unlike the, examiner The Space
agency never paid.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Up SO i love stories where some random thing happens
and just changes the trajectory of someone's. Life and this
the thing literally crashes Into stan's yard and look what.
Speaker 6 (43:07):
He got to.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
Do he got to go tour THE us win cash.
Prizes that's not a bad.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Day there's something sort of sweet about, this like main
character energy that like he gets to go on in
old fashioned like whistle stop tour and gets a little
publicity and taste of glamour before he goes back to
his normal.
Speaker 6 (43:26):
LIFE i mean, also for a beer truck driver In
australia to end up like all Over Ground america and
then getting swindled by a furniture, SALESMAN i just love.
It it's such a pure story in that regard to.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
The villain of this. Story really is the furniture? Salesman
oh my.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
God.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Yes, also how About NASA's like cavalier attitude of, look,
look we have a one in seven chance we may
hit a city with, this but we're going for. It
we're gonna let this baby.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Cook it's really a classic case of we're gonna do
the best we.
Speaker 6 (43:52):
Can, yeah, exactly did you guys have like a very
special character in this one because there's so many good.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
ONES i Like, JOE i like that sort of, pragmatism
the love. Story, YES i do wish they ended up,
together just for my own like mental. MOVIE i feel
like in the movie they will unless it's all just
a bittersweet sort of saga about how nothing lasts and
everything falls, apart which kind of makes sense because you,
know the fame and publicity sort of dries, up so
(44:21):
maybe relationships do.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Too this just made me. Sad.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
Yeah, also there's such a cute. Couple you're really pulling for, them, like,
OH i want these crazy kids to get.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
Together my very special moment is when the town decides
to FIND nasa four hundred dollars for. LITTERING i think
that was a good stick it to.
Speaker 6 (44:39):
Him, yes my very special moment has to be When Jeff,
jarvis our, journalist when he Has Frank sinatriz take time
out of Singing My way just to diss him and
call him a. BUM i, mean how great is? That
you got bragging race Forever Frank sinatra stop the show.
Speaker 5 (44:53):
Just to diss?
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Me, saren did you happen to cast this?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
ONE i.
Speaker 6 (44:57):
DID i did my. BEST i went through AND i
thought about it and, like. OKAY i tried to get
An australian actress For Joe norman AND i went With Angori.
Rice she Played Ryan gosling's daughter In The Nice, guys
the movie With Russell, crowe SO i thought she'd be
good as a seventeen year old for her. BOYFRIEND i
had a hard time with this, one so forgive me
IF i went with like a guy WHO i just
like and he's all over the news right, Now Jacob.
(45:18):
ELORDI i, thought you, know he can do, it.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
RIGHT i Love Jacob. Elordi he's so.
Speaker 6 (45:23):
Tall, Yeah and for some REASON i got the idea
That dan was, tall SO i was, like, okay that
could be. Fun and then for Doctor bonnie Dunbar, right
the professor Of aerospace And, ENGINEERING i was, Like, okay
Maybe i've watched too many like sci fi, movies But
i'm Thinking Dakota. Johnson it just felt right. Now For Jeff,
jarvis the rookie calumnist at The San Francisco, EXAMINER i
Think i've mentioned the show Before masters Of. AIR i
(45:45):
went with a different, Actor Anthony, boyle who he Played Harry,
crosby The navigator And masters Of. AIR i thought he
would be. Great he has that same type of. Energy
and For Dennis, sader the furniture salesman From, philly the
one with grand aspirations who was heavily in, DEBT i
Liked Caleem, turner also From masters Of. AIR i thought
he would be. Good he can play smarmy but also
(46:05):
kind of, like oh, yeah he could be a con.
Man so there we.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
Go, yeah he's. Great he's also, dating are engaged to
or married To Dua, lipa WHICH i just want to shout. Out,
yeah just a fun. Fact did you see how they?
Speaker 6 (46:17):
Met they were reading the same book and they were
apparently on the same, Page like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Yeah very special episodes is made by some very special.
People today's episode was produced in partnership With school Of.
Humans the show is hosted By Danish, Schwartz Zaren, burnett
And Jason. English our senior producer Is Josh. Fisher today's
episode was written By Jake. Rosson our story editor Is
(46:44):
Virginia prescott From school Of. Humans producers Are Amelia brock
And Etaily's. Perez editing And Sam design By Jonathan, Washington
mixing and mastering By Josh. Fisher research and fact checking
By Jake, Rosson Virginia prescott And Austin. Thompson original music
By alise, McCoy show logo By Lucy Quintonia social clips
(47:06):
By Yarberry. Media executive producers of today's episode Are Virginia
prescott And Jason. English Very Special episodes is a production
Of iHeart. Podcasts
The people of Esperance, Australia will be the first to
tell you that not a whole lot happens there. It's
a quiet, farming and fishing town where the sheep usually
outnumber the people. But in the chilly early hours of
July twelfth, nineteen seventy nine, at around midnight, a handful
(00:25):
of locals crane their necks up to the sky and
see something they've never seen before, that no one has
ever seen before, not in Esperance, not anywhere. A pyrotechnics
show among the stars, full of flashing, pulsating lights and
sounds that reverberate so deeply you can feel it in
(00:48):
your shoes.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It was like it was like fireworks back it was
the noise that came with it.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Joe Norman is among those gathered on a high bluff
over looking Esperance Bay. She was barely seventeen years old
then witnessing what looks like the apocalypse. Another observer would
later describe it as a train.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Falling out of the sky while on fire. That was thought,
Oh my god, why laud of than thunder?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
And that's when everyone we all thought, oh, holly crap,
this is actually going to fall on us. You felt
like you could just reach up and catch it. That's
how close it felt.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
What Joe sees that night is a spectacle that the
entire world has been anticipating, with a combination of amusement
and fear, the fall of sky Lab, a space station
nine stories tall and weighing over seventy seven tons, plummeting
from its orbit and re entering the Earth's atmosphere even
(01:57):
after burning up hundreds or even thousands of flaming metal
chunks rained down upon the planet. What Joe doesn't know
is that this shower of superheated space debris will soon
steer her life in a very unexpected direction. Because, for once,
(02:18):
Chicken Little is right. The sky really is falling. This
is very special episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm your host,
Danish Schwartz, and this is Skylab is Falling.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Welcome back to very special episodes. I'm Jason English, She's
Danish Swartz. Hey, he's Aaron Burnette.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Yoh.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
And now, as someone who lived through the New Jersey
drone invasion last year, I can't imagine what would happen
if what happened in nineteen seventy nine. Where to happen? Today.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
But imagine what it would be like on Twitter remember
the peak yes Twitter era, like back when Twitter was good.
Imagine how much fun that day would be on Twitter
if everyone thought that they might be about to be
crushed by a piece of a space station.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Also the amount of like because we have all the
cameras on phones now, not a video we would have
seen of this because all the descriptions sound incredible. I
would love to see this film from all these different locations.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Now, no spoilers, but there is a fun newspaper subplot
coming to this one. We love our legacy media stories here,
so look out for that.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Yes, respect.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I mean this really is sort of like All the
President's Men if it involved a publicity scheme, if instead
of investigating Watergate it was just having fun.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
I loved that there was like a branded stunt pr
event like we would recognize today, but so pure, so quaint.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
This is either gonna kill you or you're gonna win
a cash prize.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
But either way it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
If the US was intoxicated by the accomplishments of space
travel in the nineteen sixties, by the late nineteen seventies,
it had hit the hangover stage. Up until this point,
the space race had brought mostly positive things, bragging rights,
technological advancements, moon boots, and even the Dustbuster. But now
(04:25):
our ambitions were threatening to drop a two ton lead
lined vault on someone's head, a piece of space junk
traveling so fast that NASA estimated it could create a
hole in the ground one hundred feet deep. The vault
was part of Skylab, an ambitious two point six billion
(04:48):
dollar galactic laboratory launched by NASA in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
In addition to.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Experiments, it was also a chance to see how humans
would respond to extended stays in outer space, where travel
could be measured in weeks instead of days. Think of
it as a kind of cosmic motel six.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
We used it as a platform for designing our future
space stations as well. That was the first time we
learned that if you're up there for about thirty days
or ninety days, actually is that healthy young man would
start to lose bone mass. This calcium.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Doctor Bonnie Dunbar is a professor of aerospace engineering as
well as an astronaut with several Shuttle missions under her belt.
Growing up on a cattle ranch, in Washington, Doctor Dunbar
didn't have a TV, just one radio station, books, and
the wide skies to stir her imagination. As a kid,
(05:52):
she saw the Soviet satellite Sputnik flicker among the stars
and was hooked. Doctor Dunbar went on to join NASA.
To her, Skylab was a major step forward in space exploration.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It was the bridge.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Between the Apollo missions which put humans on the Moon,
and the Space Shuttle missions, which sent cruise up for
advanced explorations. Skylab informed those later missions, giving us what
remains some of the most valuable information about how we
endure zero gravity.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
To NASA, Skylab.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Could help us go beyond, way beyond where humankind had
ever been.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
We could study technology and people in a weightless environment
and understand it well enough to eventually send people not
just to the Moon for a long periods of time,
but to Mars.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Though it was the site of three successful missions, by
the mid nineteen seventies, Skylab was becoming a headache. It
was damaged during launch when part of its heat shield
tore off, compromising its solar energy capacity and making it
prone to overheating. Repairs were made, though one solar wing
(07:10):
was permanently lost. Lacking thrusters, it couldn't propel itself. Skylab
began drifting out of orbit faster than anticipated. It was
NASA's version of a jinky car, one without brakes, that
just keeps rolling downhill.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Because when you're in ers orbit, you're actually orbit continues
to degrade because it's not a perfect vacuum. There's a
few i call them random molecules out there that create drag,
and as you increase the drag, you decrease velocity, and
when you decrease velocity, you start to fall back into
the Earth. So that's what Skylab was doing.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Unable to take control of Skylab, NASA did the next
best thing it could.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It powered Skylab down.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
With Skylab essentially in extended stay parking for the next
several years, talk at NASA turned to how to deal
with its inevitable re entry. For a time that seemed
a long way off. Some estimates pegged it as late
as nineteen eighty three, but Skylab kept descending. By nineteen
(08:24):
seventy eight, it became clear that Skylab was coming home,
which led to a series of well, let's call it
creative problem solving proposal. One nuke Skylab into oblivion, rendering
it harmless. A bad idea for any number of reasons,
(08:45):
the major one being that launching a nuke, even at
our own technology, was in gross violation of international treaties.
Proposal to send an F fifteen jet controlled by computer
into a supersonic climb to eighty thousand feet high enough
(09:05):
to launch a non nuclear rocket. Would that have been awesome? Yeah, sure,
but also pointless since you'd simply be creating more debris
falling onto Earth.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Proposal three, use another.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Vessel like the Space Shuttle to reboost it back into
orbit like a dog nudging a ball with its nose,
but NASA budget issues had hampered the Shuttle's schedule. A
joint rescue mission with the Soviet Union was discussed, but
there simply wasn't enough time to match Russia's spacetech with Americas.
(09:47):
It's sort of like trying to fit a lego in
with a megablox. That left just one other option, except
Skylab was coming back and do everything possible to mitigate
the damage. So in late nineteen seventy eight, the agency
announced they would permit Skylab to fall back to Earth.
(10:10):
To the lay person hearing that a seventy seven ton
projectile would smack into Earth prompts some questions. The first,
are we doomed? NASA crunched some numbers. While there were
plenty of variables, it looked as though there would be
a one in seven chance at least one piece of
(10:32):
Skylab would land on a major city, a one in
one hundred and fifty two chance of it striking a
random person, and a one in six hundred billion chance
of a piece of the debris striking any one specific person.
Even so, the US government went so far as to
make plans for mass casualties out.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Of an abundance of caution.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
While some were justifiably on nerved by those numbers, others
had a different reaction. They turned sky Labs return into
a party. As word spread of Skylab's looming arrival, some
painted bullseyes on their roofs. A giant baseball glove was
(11:18):
constructed in Cape Canaveral in Missouri. A one time fallout
shelter with Cold War canned food was converted to a
falling space Lab refuge. A couple in India named their
newborn you guessed it, Skylab, And of course there was
merch t shirts and survival kits for sale In Times Square,
(11:41):
a New York eatery offered free meals for life to
anyone struck, presuming they lived.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
At least one.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Person hosted a sky Lab party with cocktails and protective helmets.
It was doomsday with a mostly smiley face. While the
national media breathlessly covered this story, in San Francisco, the
Examiner and the Chronicle saw an opening. Two rival dailies,
(12:11):
desperate for readers, seized on Skylab for a late Space
age publicity stunt.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
San Francisco was reminiscent of the dying embers of good
old style competitive newspapering.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
That's Jeff Jarvis, currently a visiting professor at Stonybrook University.
Jeff is the author of The Gutenberg Parentheses, a look
at how storytelling has evolved from the early days of
print to digital media. Back in the late nineteen seventies,
though Jeff was a twenty three year old just getting
started in the newspaper game, it was not going well.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
I had gone to a Frank Sinatric benefit concert. I
didn't think it was so hot. I said so on
my column, And the next night or the night after,
at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California's stopped
singing my Way to call me a bum. I wasn't
there to witness this momentous event. I heard about it
on the radio the next morning to Dannure crash my car.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
When not being heckled by Frank Sinatra, the rookie columnist
at the San Francisco Examiner was in hot competition with
legendary gossip writer Herb Kane at the Chronicle.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
He was king of the town. Every bit of gossip
went to him, and I was the fifty seventh sacrificial
lamb in the Examiner against Herb Caane.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Known as mister San Francisco. The future Pulitzer Prize winning
Kane was generally beloved. Heck, even the Zodiac Killer once
called herbout by name in one of the letters he
sent to the Chronicle. No serial murderers were writing to Jeff,
which meant he had to come up with material on
his own.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
I was going to be the young guy who was
going to write a column six days a week, but
all the gossip went to Herb. I only got the droppings,
and so I ended up having to find ways to
write features six days a week, fifteen hundred words a day.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
The Examiner and the Chronicle shared a composing room, printing press,
even a Sunday paper, but they were still mortal enemies.
Every headline, every penny in the corner newsbox mattered. So
when Skylab fever hit the front pages, the Chronicle fired
the first shot.
Speaker 7 (14:23):
And so one day I went out in the composing
room and I saw that the Chronicle a week hence
was going to offer Skylab insurance to its readers. You
had to die, you had to lose a limb, but
if you did, the Chronicle would pay off. I came
back in the newsroom and I told my colleagues what
they were doing, and we immediately started brainstorming about what
(14:45):
we could do in response. The key here was that
the Chronicle's offer was going to be about a week
in the future. We decided we could rush and we
could get something in sooner.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
The Chronicle promised one hundred thousand dollars to anyone maimed
by Skylab, presuming you were a Chronicle subscriber. Jeff's editors
wanted to top it by essentially saying you didn't need
to be dismembered to win, and.
Speaker 7 (15:16):
We scrashed our heads and figured out what we could do,
and one of us suggested that, well, maybe we could
give it a reward if somebody actually delivered a piece
of Skylab to the office.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Their idea skip the insurance offer a bounty ten thousand
dollars to the first person who could bring an actual
piece of Skylab to the newsroom within seventy.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Two hours of its crash.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
That's the equivalent of roughly forty five thousand dollars today,
a lot of money and a real risky stunt for
the Examiner, but the papers editor didn't think he'd ever
have to pay out.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
I was tasked with calling NASA, and NASA absolutely assured
me that this was going to fall in the ocean,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Unless someone was willing to wade into the ocean. It
sounded like the paper would get a whole lot of
publicity for very little risk. The Examiner went all in,
setting up a Skylab desk in the lobby.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
The publicity person, who at the time was married to
the publisher, put up a big check over it and
Skylab and put somebody, some poor soul I don't remember who,
into an alien costume.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Almost immediately people began fishing for the reward. One guy
presented a nerf ball with an obvious coat of silver
spray paint. Someone mailed Jeff a tire iron with a
handwritten label saying it was Skylab.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Part three three, four, four, five six six six' TWO.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
A a woman phoned saying she found a piece of
yellow metal in her. Yard, maybe she, said with a
trace of hope in her, voice it had fallen Off.
Skylab early attracting ranksters and would be fraudsters was a,
feature not a. Bug the examiner wanted people talking about the,
(17:08):
contest and it also Gave jeff plenty of fodder for his.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
Column this was the last gasp of a good old
fashioned competitive newspaper. Fight it was nothing but, fun but
we had fun with.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
It While jeff kept filing columns on the increasing, Weirdness
washington made. PLANS nasa urged people to duck into basements
at the first strange sound across the. Country medical, teams,
firefighters even lawyers were on. Standby NASA's crash team was
(17:42):
ready to chase the world's biggest piece of litter wherever it.
Fell but this wasn't just. Cleanup it was. History no
one had ever watched a space station come home in,
flames and now it was on its way. Fast skylab
(18:06):
has long been idling two hundred and seventy miles Above,
earth but By june of nineteen seventy, nine it's down
to one hundred and sixty three miles and growing closer
by the. Day by this, point Doctor dunbar is a
flight controller AT.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Nasa she's tasked with.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Monitoring skylab from a small control room At Johnson Space
center In, Houston.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Texas for Doctor.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Dunbar and her, colleagues this accelerating descent means keeping track
of its movement around the, clock which is. Tricky on,
AVERAGE nasa can connect To skylab for only a few
minutes out of every hour and a.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Half during those brief, contacts.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The station would report on its vital systems AND nasa
could give it instructions in engineering, terms ask how it's,
doing and record the.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Answers we were seven days on and then two days,
off and we would rotate, shifts so one shift you
might be on from eight to, four and the next
shift from four to, midnight and then so. Forth so
for nine MONTHS i was in this rotating shift flight controller.
Mode make SURE i could sleep during the, DAY i
(19:19):
put tinfoil on my bedroom.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Windows keep in mind Doctor dunbar and her colleagues are
trying to influence the station's movement while it's hundreds of
miles up in, space all this using nineteen seventy nine.
Technology match conversions are mostly done on.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Paper there's no sophisticated, hardware just the world's highest stakes video.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
Game if you think of a, pencil if you've got
the pointing in facing the direction it's, going there's less surface,
area there less. Drag so if you could change the
drag A skylab by changing it's, orientation then you could
kind of manage its altitude if you. Will but you
(20:05):
had to balance that against the fact that its power
source was its solar rays get pointed to the, sun,
Right so if you always pointed the solar rays to The,
sun then you might not be in the best attitude
for managing the.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Drag that was.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
The trick balance both Or skylab drops. Sooner at, FIRST
nasa predicted the orbiter would break up over an, ocean
but as the hours tick, down new calculations show something.
Alarming it might pass Over, canada maybe even main The
(20:41):
skylab team has to make decisions on the, fly digging
up old tech manuals that hadn't been opened in.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Years we didn't know this was still all learning environment
for us first time the orbited big mass like.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
This then comes the final trans.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Mission skylab was Entering earth's atmosphere speed hundreds of miles an,
hour destination still. Unknown THE faa AND norads scramble to
keep tabs on signals going, offline not because of technical,
problems but because systems are literally being.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Incinerated and then you hear people, saying, WELL i just
lost data from this solar ray that type of, thing
so you know where it. Is you've GOT dar round radar.
Contact you're watching to see what systems are, disappearing because
they're actually disintegrating in the year's.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Atmosphere the mammoth station begins burning up in a multimillion
dollar fireworks. Show it's windmill, shaped solar wings torn away
like the wings of a. Fly the telescope mount rips,
free then the control, center the docking, port each piece
vanishing in flames within minutes seventy seven and tons of
(22:01):
meadow becomes light and, smoke falling Toward. Earth it's enough
to make even the calculating methodical crew AT nasa feel.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
MOVED i actually saw the last pass from the roof
of The Emission Control, center but it went Over houston
and so it was starting.
Speaker 7 (22:22):
To get a little.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Bright you, know all of the airspace had been cleared
around the globe on its orbit. Trajectory AND i will
tell you that it was a little bit emotional in
that last.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Past there was a sense of melancholy that Maybe skylab
wasn't the only thing winding.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Down there was a feeling there, that, boys is this the.
End we've canceled The apollo program prematurely because they thought
the public wasn't, interested and so there was a, sense,
BOY i hope this is not the.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
End half a world away From bonnie and her, crew
teen year Old Joe norman and her, boyfriend truck Driver Stan,
thornton drive to a hilltop over the bay In esperance
in Western australia and join a crowd staring up at
the Cold july.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Sky quite a group of us all decided to go
up there and wait to see if we could see,
anything not thinking that we ever, would but we sure.
Did there were so many people.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Up they.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Whiting around Midnight australian time On july, eleventh nineteen seventy,
nine houses begin to, shake windows, rattle and horses.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Scamper frightened dogs circle.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And howl As skylab makes its unlikely. ENTRANCE nasa had
originally put the odds of Hitting australia at just two,
percent But skylab was nothing if not.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Unpredictable, yeah it was so.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Beautiful it was really really, APRECY i, guess not like
a shooting, star because there were millions of millions of
little pieces breaking up. Here was very.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Spectacular from the, hilltop they watched as giant balls of
fire turned to smaller balls of, fire as white light turns,
red as pieces of a two point six billion dollar
engineering marvel burn into. ASH nasa later estimates that about
five hundred pieces fell To, earth from tiny chunks to
(24:31):
an oxygen tank the size of a. Truck by twelve
thirty seven, am it's. Over the sky goes dark. Again
joe And stan drive back down the, hill thinking that
was more or less the end of.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
It after we.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
All calm down and, thought, okay that's it, now and
then we all just dissipated went.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
HOME i went home to Mar.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Place stan went high to.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
His the next, Morning Stan thornton walks into his backyard
to find dozens of charred bits scattered in the, grass
about coin, sized just a couple inches or less in.
Diameter stan knows that whatever this, is it just got.
Here the yard had been cleaned the day.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Before thy were, roll you, know very excited because on
the back law AND i had found the little pieces of,
chocoal WHICH i don't know how many they were, altogether
BECAUSE i didn't say it before they collected.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It all local officials confirm debris has landed Near. Esperance radio
stations buzz with rumors of wreckage in the. Desert could
these pieces really be From? Skylab stan is only sure
about one. Thing he has to go to, work so
(25:51):
a friend volunteers to take the chunks to a chemist
for further. Investigation the good news the pieces aren't radio,
act but that was about all he could, say not
knowing what kind of MATERIALS nasa used to Construct. Skylab
searching for more, Information stan contexts local emergency.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Services they don't.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Have a lot of advice to offer, either but they
do Tell stan that a newspaper In San francisco is
offering ten thousand dollars for a real piece of. Skylab
stan delivers beer for a. Living ten grand could be
more than a year's, salary but he's never been out
of the country. Before he now has what amounts to
(26:38):
ten thousand dollars in casino chips in his proverbial, pocket
but he has to get to a casino window thousands
of miles.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Away stan is in.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
LUCK a local radio station helps him get an expedited passport,
overnight and by mourning stands on a Swanky quantus plane
with a bag full of burnt metal and a toothbrush he.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Thought of got. Whisked the way was very for.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Real you just kept thinking what they actually sent A
lea jet down From. Perth we hadn't even heard of
what A lea jet.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Was back In San, francisco The examiner office is buzzing
with news About ausy treasure hunters combing for. Scraps some
are reportedly headed To San francisco to claim the, reward
But stan's early start has him leading the.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Pack when he lands.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
In San, francisco he breathes his first sigh of. Relief
he's the first and only person to. Show reporters swarm
around the, shaggy wide eyed teenager a limo courtesy Of
Quantas whisks stand to the offices of The, examiner where
he hands over a brown leather shaving bag full of
(27:58):
what could be worth more than gold by the. Ounce
jeff gets his first look at the source of all the.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Hysteria he's not.
Speaker 7 (28:07):
Impressed they looked like charcoal. Briquettes after doing the steak that, tracks.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yes jeff looked like it's the charcoal from the. Barbecue,
really and we did joke about, it saying It i'll
do any. Abbit the next or ibis just throwing eat
chocoal over.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
The P, still this wasn't a beauty contest for rocks
with a theatrical. Flourish the twelve lumps are moved to
an armored suitcase and whisked off to A nasa lab In,
Huntsville alabama for extensive testing that's going to take some.
Time and now it's up To jeff and the examiner
(28:48):
to chaperon the, kid and.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
So there's going to be a waiting period while that goes.
On and so we realized that we had in our
care a teenager who was far away from, home no
escort at. All he came with at most a gym.
Bag he had no clothes to speak, of certainly no,
suitcase and was it a very unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Environment stan being a fish out of water is good For,
jeff whose primary job was to ratchet up suspense for his.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Readers no easy.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Feat stan is a nice, guy you, all just not
what you'd call.
Speaker 7 (29:28):
Charismatic he didn't ever have much to say AND i,
had well the whole time we're waiting for the artifact
to be verified BY, NASA i had to get daily
columns out of. Him stan was, delightful wonderful, kid but
the longest sentences he tended to use were up and.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Nope jeff takes him to see The San Jose earthquakes
pro soccer team he. Loathed stan on a helicopter tour
Of San. Francisco Mayor Dianne feinstein gives him.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
The key to the.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
City he has his first Big mac from. McDonald's stan
even gets to hold a monkey being used in the
filming of a. Movie jeff takes him to see a movie.
Too of, course It's, moonraker.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
And he went along with. It he was get, Along,
Stan he was, great but it Was, milkin a dead,
cow trying to get any quotes out of him to
fill a. Column, Well stan did this, today And stan
had nothing to, Say and that's kind of HOW i
had to live that week or.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
So While stan calls his, parents who worry that he
might be the victim of random violence in THE, Us
jeff keeps CALLING, nasa hoping for any.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Update stan Likes James.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Bond he didn't mind the, monkey but what he really
wants is to get his money and go.
Speaker 7 (30:48):
HOME i was Calling, Huntsville alabama to find out is
this thing certified? Yet what's taking so?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Long after a week of gamma rays AND x rays
and treating the barbecue briquettes like the charred scrolls Of,
Vesuvius jeff's office phone, RINGS nasa finally has.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
NEWS nasa was scratching its collective head over What stan had,
brought because it had, carbon that is to, say something
from a life, form And skylob was, Metal skylight was plastic.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Carbon that was.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Weird no astronauts had been on Board skylab when it
plummeted To, earth and presumably no aliens, either though you
can probably find a YouTube video Saying, Otherwise jeff didn't
Believe stan was a grifter trying to pass off a
painted nerf. Ball he was an, earnest quiet kid who
(31:46):
had traveled a long.
Speaker 7 (31:47):
Way, no our worst fear was that what If stan
had been taken by. Somebody stan was an innocent but
what if somebody had Slipped stan Counterfeit skylab?
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Bits so what DID nasa?
Speaker 7 (32:04):
Think there was one theory for a time that this
might have been astronaut.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Poop, FORTUNATELY nasa ran more tests and soon they Called
jeff with better. News stan had not traveled seven thousand
miles to deliver a stool.
Speaker 7 (32:27):
Sample they finally concluded that there was balsa wood insulation In,
skylab and that that's what these black pieces. Were they were,
Inside so they've been kind of the last to burn.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Up, yes this two point six billion dollar space station
used wood for thermal.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Insulation even, better.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
It was a type of wood that didn't grow In,
australia meaning it couldn't have come from anywhere but.
Speaker 7 (32:53):
Space AND i don't THINK nasa was necessarily one hundred
percent scientific, shore but at that POINT i think they
were sick of, it and our guy In huntspital was
sick of, it and we were ready to move, on
and SO nasa, said, yeah we certify.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
It, so after days of, waiting The San Francisco examiner
Cuts Stan thornton a check for ten thousand dollars cash in.
Hand stan wants to make a bee line back To,
esperans but the contagious weirdness Of skylab isn't quite. Over
(33:28):
while idling In San, Francisco stan Meets Dennis, sader a
furniture salesman From philly with grand. Aspirations sader Pitches stan
a tour Across america to show off his space. Debris
he'd even Fly stan's parents, over along with one other special.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
GUEST a telegram crime Which i've still got SAYING i
would like to Invite may and his mom and dad
to come over to the Stikesa stan was missing.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Us all for his role as space, Ambassador stan would
get ten thousand dollars in home furnishings and a chance
to earn a little scratch through additional. ENDORSEMENTS a spokesperson
For quantus speculates That stan's fifteen minutes could net him
over one hundred thousand dollars of nineteen seventy nine, cash
(34:24):
all this for a.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Quiet australian with space coal in his.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Pockets stan agrees and soon finds himself In philadelphia With
joe posing in a shop window with some end tables
in What sadder thought would be a fun photoshoot for his.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Store at one stage we were standing in the front
of the, window settings made lying on a, shiff staying the,
model you, know just showing off some of the. Furniture
it was very, weird very.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Weird stan hops on his overnight celebrity touring THE us
with his, mom dad And joe by his. Side they meet,
mayors appear on talk, shows even visit The White, house
Though President Jimmy carter couldn't make.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
It, no The president didn't mate with.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Us so we got a packet of each peanuts instead
and an ASHTRAY i, think and a couple of spoons
to say that we've visited The White. House well NOW
i think back AND i, think oh my, god that was.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Huge they visit The Smithsonian air And Space museum In
washington and A nasa facility In. Virginia stan sometimes dolling
out bits Of skylab like a sprinkling of magic. Dust
at The National air And space, museum they see a
full scale backup Of skylab's orbital workshop at a towering
(35:53):
forty eight Feet it puts the whole excursion in. Perspective
skylab had been. Abstracted it's tangible, pieces little more than
some peculiar looking bits of. Call but, this this was
what had actually come from.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Space it actually gave me the he be joutis BECAUSE
i kept, thinking oh my, god one of the wings
does not even sit in a four story, building and
this is what has fallen on us. All AND i
did remember, SAYING i, said oh my, god if people
knew the size of, this we would never have gone
(36:32):
and stood out and watched it go, over.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Thinking you, know nothing's going to happen to.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Us finally, Stands patience runs out his status as spaceboy,
tiresome and the whole group leaves for.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Home we were over it by, then because the cameras
would just follow you, everywhere and everything you said was
up on SOME tv.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Show, yeah it was quite. Bizarre back, Home stan buys
a car and a little.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Land he dules out some of his winnings to his
parents and his Friend, ray.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Who carried The skylab bits to the.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Chemist When Jeff jarvis followed up With stan a year.
Later he had about two thousand dollars. Left, unfortunately the
promised home furnishings never.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Arrived we picked it all, Out we went to the
warehouse and he let us cheat whatever we. Wanted they, said, yep,
yep we'll ship that out to. You but we never
heard from. Me and after where lesh think he was
a bit of a cornar drift.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Myself jeff reached out To satyr on their behalf to
ask about the, goods only to find that he was
heavily in debt and had fled.
Speaker 7 (37:45):
Town, well the problem for the furniture guy was that
he thought that he was going to get, barrels wasn't
he just like we. Did but the story was over
Once stan got the. Check he won the ten thousand.
Dollars kid makes. Good that was the end of the.
Narrative and in our attention deficit disorder industry that we
call media and, journalism everybody was on to the next.
(38:06):
Story it was, forgotten so he didn't get out of
it what he had.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Anticipated so after all that did The skylab contest actually
result in more readers of The.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
Examiner this was a good old time publicity, trick but
it made no real business. Difference it gave everybody a
lot of fun for a few.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Weeks as for the famous chronicle Columnist, Irbcane Jeff jarvis's
arch Newspaper, nemesis he was on vacation for most of
That june And, july missing virtually all of the. Excitement
so why Did skylab capture so much of the public's.
(38:50):
Imagination the closest thing we can compare it to is
a horror. Movie when we watch a teenager getting chased
through the woods by a psychotic, killer we feel a
kind of relief that were not, Them that things might be,
bad but Not machetti through the neck. Bad it's a
way to grapple with our fear of death without getting
(39:12):
too close to. It Maybe skylab was a kind of
rehearsal for. Doomsday something enormous was about to fall from the,
sky and for a moment we lost the illusion of
control and got a small taste of what it might
feel like to face the end of. Everything some people
(39:34):
coped by making light of, it painting targets on roofs
and selling.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Helmets others fled for.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Cover we probably got curious how it would feel to
face our, mortality and it turned out to be mostly.
Speaker 7 (39:51):
Okay american, news especially in the days since radio AND,
tv but also in, print has long been about the hot.
Story we think that The internet invented trending and. Memes,
no that's been the essence of journalism and news since
the steam powered press and scale came to. Press so
(40:14):
this was a story that was bound to get. Attention
thank god it. Didn't the satellite didn't kill anybody or injure,
anybody so we could have fun with. It couldn't we
use more stories like that these? DAYS i think we.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Could we too long for the days when the worst
thing imaginable was merely a superheated.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Led vault falling on.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Us of, course we wanted to talk To Stan, thornton
but he's as media a verse as he was in
nineteen seventy nine and didn't respond to our. Requests Jeff
jarvis tried to reach him a few years. Ago he
finally made a connection via. Email was he doing?
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Well? Yep anything else to, say, Nope.
Speaker 7 (40:58):
So it was good to just say are you? Doing
and great to talk after all these. Years AS i
was glad to close the loop there.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
As For joe And.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Stan they kept dating after getting back To, australia got
engaged at, eighteen and then drifted. Apart joe eventually moved To,
perth got, married and pursued a career in.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Education she keeps.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
A small chunk Of, skylab a souvenir of when the sky.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Fell WHEN i think Of, skylab the thing THAT i
remember seeing, it the actual witnessing of, it was something
out of this world THAT i don't think anyone will
ever experience, again BECAUSE i would never let it happen.
Again it would be blown out of the atmosphere before
it could even.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Happen there, are of, course conspiracy theories THAT nasa had
intentionally Steered skylab over soil In australia so they could
retrieve whatever pieces they. COULD a pretty lousy can inspirasee
as a lot of it landed in The Indian. Ocean
other scraps wound up in a Local esperans. Museum another
(42:08):
in Nearby Calgarly Town, hall was so big at over
six feet, long workers had to take the front doors
off to get it. Inside the mayor thought it would
be good for. Tourism one piece even wound up on
stage at The Miss universe pageant In perth next To Donnie.
Osmond President carter did eventually acknowledge the inconvenience To, australia
(42:35):
apologizing to the Country's Prime minister in a nod of
the good humor Of. Australians In esperand's official FIND nasa
four hundred dollars for. Littering unlike the, examiner The Space
agency never paid.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Up SO i love stories where some random thing happens
and just changes the trajectory of someone's. Life and this
the thing literally crashes Into stan's yard and look what.
Speaker 6 (43:07):
He got to.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
Do he got to go tour THE us win cash.
Prizes that's not a bad.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Day there's something sort of sweet about, this like main
character energy that like he gets to go on in
old fashioned like whistle stop tour and gets a little
publicity and taste of glamour before he goes back to
his normal.
Speaker 6 (43:26):
LIFE i mean, also for a beer truck driver In
australia to end up like all Over Ground america and
then getting swindled by a furniture, SALESMAN i just love.
It it's such a pure story in that regard to.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
The villain of this. Story really is the furniture? Salesman
oh my.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
God.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Yes, also how About NASA's like cavalier attitude of, look,
look we have a one in seven chance we may
hit a city with, this but we're going for. It
we're gonna let this baby.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Cook it's really a classic case of we're gonna do
the best we.
Speaker 6 (43:52):
Can, yeah, exactly did you guys have like a very
special character in this one because there's so many good.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
ONES i Like, JOE i like that sort of, pragmatism
the love. Story, YES i do wish they ended up,
together just for my own like mental. MOVIE i feel
like in the movie they will unless it's all just
a bittersweet sort of saga about how nothing lasts and
everything falls, apart which kind of makes sense because you,
know the fame and publicity sort of dries, up so
(44:21):
maybe relationships do.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Too this just made me. Sad.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
Yeah, also there's such a cute. Couple you're really pulling for, them, like,
OH i want these crazy kids to get.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
Together my very special moment is when the town decides
to FIND nasa four hundred dollars for. LITTERING i think
that was a good stick it to.
Speaker 6 (44:39):
Him, yes my very special moment has to be When Jeff,
jarvis our, journalist when he Has Frank sinatriz take time
out of Singing My way just to diss him and
call him a. BUM i, mean how great is? That
you got bragging race Forever Frank sinatra stop the show.
Speaker 5 (44:53):
Just to diss?
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Me, saren did you happen to cast this?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
ONE i.
Speaker 6 (44:57):
DID i did my. BEST i went through AND i
thought about it and, like. OKAY i tried to get
An australian actress For Joe norman AND i went With Angori.
Rice she Played Ryan gosling's daughter In The Nice, guys
the movie With Russell, crowe SO i thought she'd be
good as a seventeen year old for her. BOYFRIEND i
had a hard time with this, one so forgive me
IF i went with like a guy WHO i just
like and he's all over the news right, Now Jacob.
(45:18):
ELORDI i, thought you, know he can do, it.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
RIGHT i Love Jacob. Elordi he's so.
Speaker 6 (45:23):
Tall, Yeah and for some REASON i got the idea
That dan was, tall SO i was, like, okay that
could be. Fun and then for Doctor bonnie Dunbar, right
the professor Of aerospace And, ENGINEERING i was, Like, okay
Maybe i've watched too many like sci fi, movies But
i'm Thinking Dakota. Johnson it just felt right. Now For Jeff,
jarvis the rookie calumnist at The San Francisco, EXAMINER i
Think i've mentioned the show Before masters Of. AIR i
(45:45):
went with a different, Actor Anthony, boyle who he Played Harry,
crosby The navigator And masters Of. AIR i thought he
would be. Great he has that same type of. Energy
and For Dennis, sader the furniture salesman From, philly the
one with grand aspirations who was heavily in, DEBT i
Liked Caleem, turner also From masters Of. AIR i thought
he would be. Good he can play smarmy but also
(46:05):
kind of, like oh, yeah he could be a con.
Man so there we.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
Go, yeah he's. Great he's also, dating are engaged to
or married To Dua, lipa WHICH i just want to shout. Out,
yeah just a fun. Fact did you see how they?
Speaker 6 (46:17):
Met they were reading the same book and they were
apparently on the same, Page like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Yeah very special episodes is made by some very special.
People today's episode was produced in partnership With school Of.
Humans the show is hosted By Danish, Schwartz Zaren, burnett
And Jason. English our senior producer Is Josh. Fisher today's
episode was written By Jake. Rosson our story editor Is
(46:44):
Virginia prescott From school Of. Humans producers Are Amelia brock
And Etaily's. Perez editing And Sam design By Jonathan, Washington
mixing and mastering By Josh. Fisher research and fact checking
By Jake, Rosson Virginia prescott And Austin. Thompson original music
By alise, McCoy show logo By Lucy Quintonia social clips
(47:06):
By Yarberry. Media executive producers of today's episode Are Virginia
prescott And Jason. English Very Special episodes is a production
Of iHeart. Podcasts
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