TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Heavy Metal 4 Chapter 1 Flying High 10 Chapter 2 The Junkyard 18 Chapter 3 Coping with Space Junk 26 Chapter 4 Cleaning House 34 What’s Next 41 Source Notes 44 Glossary 45 Selected Bibliography 46 Further Reading and Websites 46 Index 47
INTRODUCTION HEAVY METAL A group of Vietnamese officials inspect a metal container believed to be a Russian air tank that fell from space In January 2016 a sound like thunder rumbled through the skies of northern Vietnam Right after that three round metal containers fell to the ground The largest container about 39 inches 99 centimeters across and about 99 pounds 45 kilograms came to rest near a stream A smaller container landed in a neighborhood yard The smallest one hit a roof and then rolled onto the ground Officials from Vietnam’s defense department examined the containers The investigation showed that they were tanks for holding compressed air and that they’d been made in Russia One aerospace expert guessed that the tanks had come from an 4
This artists’s depiction shows several satellites orbiting Earth artificial satellite a human-made craft designed to orbit circle around Earth in space Controlled by humans on the ground more than a thousand working satellites orbit Earth They do different jobs such as studying weather transmitting telephone signals and making photographs of Earth from space Most people rarely think about satellites But occasionally parts of satellites and other spacecraft come crashing to the ground reminding us that the space around Earth is not empty Not only is it home to satellites it is also home to millions of pieces of human-made debris commonly called space junk Sometimes old satellites explode shooting pieces of debris into space
