Space Junk: A Catastrophe On The Horizon

More and more junk is cluttering space, threatening our satellites and rockets.

- Daniel Clery

OUT IN THE BLACKNESS OF SPACE  two astronauts are repairing the Hubble telescope and enjoying glimpses of their blue planet in the distance. At the same time, Russia decides to test an anti-satellite missile. Within minutes, the debris shower takes out the space shuttle and damages the International and Chinese space stations. Will the astronauts survive?  

Many readers will recognise the plot of the movie Gravity. Fewer may know that on 10 February 2009, a real space nightmare came true. A satellite belonging to Iridium Communications relaying data to and from mobile phone users was passing over Siberia’s Taymyr Peninsula. At 16.56 GMT Iridium 33 was there; at 16.57 it was not. It had collided with a dead Russian military communications satellite. Weighing one tonne and travelling at a relative speed of 12 kilometres per second, the Kosmos 2251 satellite hit Iridium 33 with three times the kinetic energy of an Airbus A380. Both spacecraft disintegrated, scattering wreckage far and wide.