Chapter 12, Problem 66GP

CE The Crash of Skylab Skylab, the largest spacecraft ever to fall back to the Earth, met its fiery end on July 11, 1979, after flying directly over Everett, WA, on its last orbit. On the CBS Evening News the night before the crash, anchorman Walter Cronkite, in his rich baritone voice, made the following statement: “NASA says there is a little chance that Skylab will land in a populated area.” After the commercial, he immediately corrected himself by saying, “I meant to say ‘there is little chance’ Skylab will hit a populated area.” In fact, it landed primarily in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, though several pieces were recovered near the town of Esperance, Australia, which later sent the U.S. State Department a $400 bill for littering. The cause of Skylab’s crash was the friction it experienced in the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere. As the radius of Skylab’s orbit decreased, did its speed increase, decrease, or stay the same? Explain.