If Mir breaks up as planned in the next few hours over the remote South Pacific Ocean, there'll be no welcoming committee.
That would be perfectly acceptable -- desirable, actually -- as no one wants multi-ton bits of space station falling on people.
But if anyone is out there in that lonely stretch of ocean when the big moment comes, Mir's splashdown will be a hell of a sight.
Stan Thornton, a residential ceramic tile layer and lifelong resident of Esperance, Western Australia, was on the roof of his home watching when America's space station Skylab fell on his hometown in July 1979.
"There was this bunch of brightly colored lights, followed by big sonic booms," said Thornton, who was 17 at the time. "The sky lit up like a big retail shop."
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