The Foreign Service Journal, May 2012

I t was a cool and damp Monday night in Melbourne when Skylab finally fell from orbit on July 12, 1979. I had just arrived there as the new branch public affairs officer, and local media representatives had gath- ered in the American Center to say farewell to my predecessor and meet me. Though the evening began with a routine reception, it ended with an op- portunity to witness, and report, an his- toric event. NASA had launched Skylab in 1973 as an orbital space facility, similar to the current International Space Station. As late as 1978, NASA was still plan- ning to send more astronauts there on the space shuttle. But that was not to be. As an avid reader of the wireless file, I studied yards of paper with NASA’s projections of Skylab’s last orbits. Suddenly, I realized that its demise was likely to occur on Aus- tralian territory! So at the end of the reception, I invited the media to my office to witness Skylab’s return to Earth. I am not sure whether it was the offer of free drinks or the prospect of a scoop, but several print and broadcast- ing reporters accepted my invitation. Channel Seven even established a live link to its nearby television studios, tak- ing advantage of my eighth-floor of- fice’s view. Adding to the drama, Australia was in the midst of a massive telecommu- nications strike. The country was al- most cut off from the rest of the world because technicians refused to main- tain the failing digital switching facili- ties. NASA had tracking stations in central Australia, but they lost contact with Houston. Embassy Canberra was cut off, as well. Fortunately, the consulate de- pended on an ancient switching facility whose analog devices had been estab- lished to link Melbourne with Wash- ington during World War II. And they still worked fine. As the evening went on, the wire- less file continued to produce dramatic descriptions of the satellite’s steadily lowering orbit. It soon became evident that I was right: Skylab was dipping low over the Indian Ocean and heading straight for Western Australia! The consulate was fortunate to have an Australian information officer, Ed Hind, who moonlighted as a late-night radio host. He had contacts all over the country and called his counterpart in Albany, an old whaling station that was now a resort and fishing town in southwest Western Australia. As re- quested, the radio reporter stepped outside and watched the sky for a fiery, descending Skylab. I got through to the USIA control center in Washington and told them that I had Ed on with Albany on a sec- ond phone on the other side of my of- fice. They patched me through to the State Department, which, in turn, had NASA on the line. At the same time, I had the Voice of America broadcasting live on my desk radio. The whole world was watching for Skylab when Ed shouted across the room: “Skylab is descending over Al- bany — the fiery entry is spectacular!” We relayed this to VOA, which quickly reported it to the world. They neg- lected to credit us, but we still took pride in our scoop. When Skylab passed over Albany to descend into the Western Australian desert, Ed called the police station in Kalgoolie, a remote outback town, and persuaded a policeman to describe Skylab’s final plunge onto Earth. Again, we were pleased to hear VOA pass on our report to the world. As a bonus, local television stations broadcast the entire drama live. It was a truly exciting time for everyone gath- ered in my Consulate Melbourne of- fice, and a privilege for me to have been part of this Space Age episode. Peter Wolcott served as a FSO with the U.S. Information Agency for 22 years. He also represented USIA members on the AFSA Governing Board in the early 1970s. R EFLECTIONS Skylab Descends B Y P ETER W OLCOTT Skylab was dipping low over the Indian Ocean and heading straight for Western Australia! 66 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 1 2