Since Sputnik I launched about 41 years ago, the Final Frontier has become the final resting place of intergalactic junk. Today, the US Space Command tracks roughly 8,000 orbiting objects – softball size or larger – including spent rocket stages, satellite fragments, and a dropped tool or two, not to mention celebrity ashes. The agency estimates there are tens of thousands of objects smaller than 10 centimeters in diameter. And even a paint flake can damage a spacecraft traveling at 30,000 mph. NASA has replaced 59 cracked windows since the space shuttle program began.
Distribution of Objects in Orbit
__Source:__Interagency Report on Orbital Debris 1995
This computer-generated image shows that most space junk litters low-Earth orbit – the heavy ring of white roughly 400 miles from our planet. A few dead communications satellites linger in the geosynchronous band, the lighter ring about 22,500 miles into space.
This article originally appeared in the February issue of Wired magazine.
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