11 July

1979: On 11 July 1979, Skylab fell to Earth.

Skylab was an orbiting space observatory manned by US astronauts, in operation during the early 1970s. After all crew activities had been completed and the crews had returned to Earth, Skylab was positioned into a stable attitude and systems were shut down. It was expected that Skylab would remain in orbit for eight to ten years.

However, in the autumn of 1977, Skylab was no longer flying in a stable attitude as a result of greater than predicted solar activity which affected Earth's upper atmosphere. On 11 July 1979, the empty Skylab spacecraft returned to Earth, scattering debris from the south-eastern Indian Ocean across a sparsely settled region of western Australia.