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NASA's Skylab $400 Littering Fine Paid By DJ

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-gonna-pick-that-up? dept.

astroengine writes "Space Disco speaks with a Californian radio DJ about his role in raising, and paying, NASA's 30-year old littering fine levied by a Western Australian town. Skylab parts fell on Esperance in 1979, but the space agency's refusal to pay $400 has resulted in an entertaining annual grudge. Now the Barstow radio DJ is guest of honor at this weekend's 30th anniversary celebrations in Oz and the two small towns at opposite ends of the Pacific will be twinned... all because Skylab had a messy re-entry..."

5 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Littering? Really? by Blixinator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do they also give fines for littering to people who wreck their cars and leave debris on the side of the road? I don't mean the whole car, but stuff like smashed headlights and windows.

    --
    "The Y chromosome is genetic. The odds are very good that if you are male then your father was too." -Internet Commenter
    1. Re:Littering? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      If somebody knowingly left debris on the side of the road - not quite deliberately, but after a deliberate action they knew what lead to things like smashed headlights etc. falling off -, and then refused to clear it up... should they not receive a fine?

      Put another way: why DIDN'T NASA clean up their debris? And no, "they're too far away and it'd be too expensive for them to do so" is not an excuse: just let them hire a local contractor. I know if China's space agency or whatever let debris fall on MY town, I'd expect them to pay someone to get rid of it again, too. Why should my taxes pay for that?

    2. Re:Littering? Really? by darkmeridian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, they fine you for littering if you leave your bumper on the road after an accident. They also bill you for repairing the dividers, signposts, and lamp posts that you destroyed in an accident. Utah did that to my parents when they got into a car accident. Utah could get reimbursement from the federal government only by showing they exhausted other sources of funding, including billing accident victims.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  2. Hometown publicity by SwingMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had to comment, just because it's pretty damn rare for my hometown to get a mention anywhere, let along on Slashdot :P This was a pretty big event at the time - Nasa had a team of people on the ground and were aksing for bits of debris to be bought in for analysis. My mother took a few pieces in and forgot about it, several months later they sent them back mounted on a nice wall plaque identifying which part of the space station it was from :)

  3. So... by shadowbearer · · Score: 1, Interesting

      How much money has that town made off of that particular bit of random fame?

      I'll bet it is a helluva lot more than the fine.

      (How much did they spend on pursuing the claim... *g*)

      Humans are, for the most part, fucking idiots.

      (I have karma to burn, so go ahead and mod me down if you feel you have to. Ask me if I care, fools.)

    SB

    --
    It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.