The Problem With Space Junk

It was December 3, 2021, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were in trouble. An object hurtling through space was headed straight toward them. If it hit, the station would be obliterated.

Was this object a giant asteroid? Or a speeding comet? In fact, it was neither of those things. The object flying toward the ISS was a small piece of an old rocket that was launched into space 28 years ago.

In other words, it was a piece of space junk.

Space junk, also known as “orbital space debris,” refers to all the human-made objects in space that no longer serve a purpose. There are bolts, screws, rocket parts, lost tools like screwdrivers, and much more. The debris ranges in size from giant dead satellites to tiny chips of paint. 

This junk began to accumulate in the 1950s, when humans first started exploring space. Back then, most scientists weren’t too worried about the many items we were leaving behind. After all, most objects in orbit eventually fall back into our atmosphere, where they harmlessly burn up high in the sky.

But here’s the problem: It can take decades, or even centuries, for that to happen. In the meantime, space junk doesn’t just float around peacefully. Most of it zooms around Earth at a whopping 17,500 mph. (At that speed, you could travel across 73 football fields in one second!) When moving that fast, even a fleck of paint can have the destructive power of a bomb.

Currently, the world’s space agencies can track debris that is about the size of a softball or bigger. Debris that large, however, is just a fraction of all the junk in space. Most of it is too small to see coming.

Experts like Dr. John L. Crassidis, a professor and aerospace engineer, say that collisions will become an increasing problem. And each collision will create even more debris. 

“There’s going to be a cascading effect,” says Crassidis. “It’s a huge worry.” 

These collisions won’t affect only the ISS. Satellites that we rely on for all sorts of things—watching TV, using the internet, tracking storms—are at risk too. 

Fortunately, the piece of debris speeding toward the ISS last December was large enough to track, so the crew had enough time to maneuver the station out of harm’s way. Still, incidents like that one are becoming more common. In the past two years, the ISS has had to dodge space junk at least five times.

^{This article was originally published in the September 2022 issue.}