Space Pollution: Is Our Space Safe?

Collision Dangers Resulting From
Orbiting Satellites, Debris and Space Junk
300,000 Hazardous Objects Orbiting Earth

A Russian and a US satellite crashed into each other in an unprecedented collision unleashing clouds of space debris that could threaten orbiting spacecraft, officials said.

After more than five decades of human activity in space, the news raises fresh concern over the swarms of hazardous debris orbiting the Earth.

A 2008 report by the international monitoring group Space Security Index found that 300,000 objects measuring between 0.4 and four inches (one and 10 centimeters) in diameter and "billions" of smaller pieces orbit the Earth.

Some 6,000 satellites have been sent into space since the Soviet Union launched the first man-made orbiter, Sputnik 1, in 1957. About 800 satellites remain in operation, according to STRATCOM.
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Space Pollution Satellites