NASA's Skylab $400 Littering Fine Paid By DJ

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..."

Comments

Simpsons

[BigJClark]

This story reads like a Simpsons' episode.

Re:You know they need better budget managers when.

[djdavetrouble]

I have been to Barstow, a hot hot hot overgrown truck stop in the middle of California's central valley.
This genius found a way to escape to australia for a bit, kudos to him.

Littering? Really?

[Blixinator]

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.

Re:Littering? Really?

[BenEnglishAtHome]

...stuff like smashed headlights and windows.

Where I come from, E-class (emergency-class) wrecker license tags, the ones that allow you to legally respond to car wrecks, are highly prized, being considered virtually a license to print money. Because of that, the wrecker drivers are perfectly willing to shoulder the extra burden of post-wreck cleanup. To keep your E-tag, you have to clean up the miscellaneous parts littering the road after a wreck. Generally, the last step in towing away a wrecked car involves the wrecker driver using a large pushbroom to clean off the roadway.

Re:Littering? Really?

[darkmeridian]

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.

SkyLab II: ISS Strikes Back

[powerlord]

Skylab parts fell on Esperance in 1979, but the space agency's refusal to pay $400 has resulted in an entertaining annual grudge.

Just wait till they DeOrbit ISS in 2016. I think I know where the "miscalculated" orbit might end up.

I expect the headline "Small New Zealand town vaporized as a result of Kilometer-Mile error made computing the ISS re-entry trajectory."

Re:Just wait!

[system1111]

crashes has such negative connotations. NASA prefers you use the term terrestrial parking. Thanks!

Interest?

[ctetc007]

What about the accrued interest on the fine? I also wonder, if they had not dropped the fine, could there have been some sort of arrest warrant, and who would've been the one to arrest?

Hometown publicity

[SwingMonkey]

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 :)

Foreign governments don't pay their parking tics

[Dr_Ken]

Foreign governments don't pay their parking tics in NYC or Washington either mainly because they don't have to. Diplomatic immunity bars local gov from messing with them. Also It would be interesting to send a FOIA request to NASA to see if the town ever went through proper diplomatic channels to make a claim against the US gov.

Get off my lawn

[bigredradio]

So I started to read the article and immediately thought "oh yeah, I remember when that came down". Then I read the part about the 30yr Anniversary. Damn I am getting old.

Re:You know they need better budget managers when.

[VoltageX]

So he goes to Western Australia, a hot hot hot overgrown truck (road train) stop on the edge of Australia.

Re:Foreign governments don't pay their parking tic

[deniable]

Read this as an example. The fine was a joke. Jimmy Carter called the local roadhouse to apologise. They probably had the whole population of Balladonia around the phone.