This is a graphic showing space debris in low-Earth orbit. This image was produced by the Office for Human Exploration Science at NASA.
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Courtesy of NASA
Space Debris Update
News story originally written on May 9, 2002
On
Earth, humans make trash. This trash can pollute our environment. Humans are doing the same thing in space. Right now there are millions of man-made objects floating in space called "space junk". Space junk includes things like
satellites that don't work anymore or paint that has fallen off of the space shuttle.
Man-made junk orbits at a speed of 17,500 miles/hour (28,000 km/h)! That's much faster then any human could drive! Even a grape-sized object could ruin a satellite if it hit at such a high speed!
Spacecraft, including the International Space Station (ISS), must be protected by shields that are not hurt when they get hit with space junk. Or the spacecraft must be able to move out of the way so it doesn't get hit by the space junk.
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