…and I guess we haven’t had this much excitement since Skylab came tumbling down to earth but apparently no parties are planned for the 10-Story, 23 ton Chinese rocket falling from the sky this weekend. That wasn’t the case in June of 1979 when people all over the United States had Skylab parities; some even held poolside disco parties in anticipation of the giant space station falling to earth. I’m not kidding about giant, Skylab weighed 77 tons and no one knew where it was going to fall. Newspapers across the country jokingly proposed Skylab insurance that would pay subscribers for death or injury caused by the fragments that didn’t burn up on re-entry. The San Francisco Examiner even offered $10 grand to anyone who came in with a piece of Skylab debris within 72 hours of the crash. Would you believe that when it did come down debris fell in Australia and a 17 year old reportedly flew to California to collect the prize? The Chinese say that the rocket is also expected to burn up on re-entry and should pose little threat to people or property. Believe them? U.S. officials are apparently tracking it but have no plans to shoot it down. I guess they haven’t gotten the bugs worked out of those Scud Busting Patriot missiles yet. While there is zero chance of any of the debris from the rocket hitting anyone there is still a chance. I guess when it comes to rockets the Chinese haven’t contributed much to aviation after all; two Wong’s don’t make a Wright. Okay, I stole that one. I’ll go now.