Space.comTopic:
Latest News About Space Junk and Orbital Debris
The amount of trash in Earth orbit, from spent rocket stages, broken satellites and micrometeoroids, is growing. Scientists are working on methods to combat the threat of space junk and orbital debris collisions.
3
The U.S. military currently tracks roughly 22,000 pieces of debris in orbit.
Envisat is roughly the size of a school bus.
After 10 years in space, the giant satellite Envisat's mission is no more.
SETI's Allen Telescope array will help track orbital debris
The massive Envisat satellite mysteriously went silent on April 8.
The Envisat satellite is 10 years old and the size of a school bus.
The remains of the Molniya 1-89 satellite crashed in the Pacific Ocean on April 7.
Focused pulses of atmospheric gases could be fired into the path of space trash.
Space station astronauts will take shelter in Soyuz lifeboat capsules when the debris passes by within 9 miles.
Lockheed Martin's prototype system locked onto orbiting objects in a recent test.
With a bit of effort, the world could keep space junk at current levels for 200 years.
The spherical object landed near a house and damaged trees as it fell to the surface.
Aerospace firm MDA is developing a spacecraft called the Space Infrastructure Servicing vehicle to refuel satellites.
See how Switzerland plans to clean up space junk using a small claw-equipped satellite.
The Swiss CleanSpace One satellite will test ways to clean up space junk.
The Swiss Space Center is developing a satellite, CleanSpace One, to tackle the growing danger of space debris orbiting Earth. The first model will rendezvous with an obsolete satellite, grab it and disintegrate with it in a controlled de-orbit.
The sun's violent activity expands Earth's atmosphere, which increases the rate that space junk falls from orbit.
The space junk was leftover debris from China's 2007 anti-satellite test, NASA says.
3
