Skylab
Skylab was a space research laboratory constructed by the United States National Aerospace Agency (NASA) which, when in July 1979 it eventually succumbed to the Earth's gravitational pull, re-entered the atmosphere and landed in fiery chunks around the Balladonia Hotel Motel.
Skylab, launched by the first two stages of a Saturn 5 rocket, weighed 88,900 kg
(196,000 lb) and had an interior space of 357 cu m(12,600 cu ft). Skylab served as a
laboratory in earth orbit. It was used to make solar-astronomical studies, to make
long-duration medical studies of the three-person crew, to make extensive multispectral
observations of the earth, and to conduct a variety of other scientific and technological
experiments, such as metallic-crystal growth in the weightless state.
Skylab was damaged during launch on May 25, 1973, but the crew, veteran astronaut
Joseph Conrad,
Commander Joseph P. Kerwin, and Commander Paul J. Weitz, carried out EVA repairs, erected
a heat-shielding canopy over the exterior of the spacecraft, and freed a jammed solar
panel. Their flight lasted 28 days. A second crew
spent 59 days in orbit and the third and final crew, 84 days.
The Skylab project was considered completely successful. More than 740 hours were spent in observing the sun by telescopes, and 175,000 solar pictures were returned to earth, as were about 64 km (about 40 miles) of electronic data tape and 46,000 photographs of the earth's surface. In early morning of July 13 (W.A. time), 1979, during orbit number 34,981, Skylab plunged back to earth.
Over the period before its final descent the world had become fascinated over where the
doomed station would land.
So
July 13 saw Balladonia airstrip record more aircraft movements than Perth International
Airport including several planes from NASA. People drove from places as far away as
Perth (1000km) to see the site of the Skylab "arrival". The US
President (Jimmy Carter) personally rang Balladonia Hotel Motel to apologise for
Skylab falling on them and subsequently Miss America and the US ambassador came and stayed
at the Balladonia Hotel Motel in a "goodwill" gesture. 
For only the second time in its history the National Geographic Magazine stopped it's presses to include the story. The local shire ranger (Mr David Somerville) was photographed giving the director of NASA a littering ticket, which received huge international coverage (the council later waved the fine), and one of the earliest uses of the fax in outback Australia was by the Washington Post newspaper who had a large suitcase sized box that allowed a photo of the Owner of Balladonia, standing with a piece of Skylab out side the front door of the Bar, to be transmitted over phone lines to America.
Skylab links: