The Sky Tonight

January 01, 2016

Watch: Six decades worth of space junk orbit Earth
London (UPI) Jan 01, 2016
In 1957, the discarded rocket that carried the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit became the first piece of space trash. Today, pieces of space debris total in the thousands. NASA reports that as of 2013 there were more than 500,000 pieces of space junk the size of a marble or larger. Nearly 20,000 pieces are bigger than a softball - tracked by NASA, ESA and others. With every new launch or retired satellite, small pieces are added to the orbital trash heap. Just last spring, ... read more

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