Space Waste & Debris: The Biggest Problem We Can’t See

On October 4th, 1957 the then Soviet Union (USSR) successfully launched its Sputnik 1 satellite into the Earth’s orbit. While the spherical Soviet satellite wasn’t threatening to look at (weighing a mere 184 pounds and measuring a slim 23 inches wide), its small beeping signal heard back on Earth resonated throughout the United States and was viewed as a massive threat. As it turns out, that tiny beep ignited the already simmering space race and effectively forced both countries to push their limits of innovation and technical ability to the breaking point in an effort to reach a nonexistent finish line.

October 4th, 1957 was also the day that many stargazers tracked a faintly shining object as it sped around the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. Many thought that they were looking at  Sputnik 1 but in reality, they were seeing the detached rocket body that propelled it into orbit. While Sputnik 1 was roughly the size of a large beach ball, its rocket body was nearly 85 feet long and covered in reflective panels. Because of its size and reflective exterior, the rocket body was what people could actually see from Earth.

So why is the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite and its rocket body so important?

Well first, the discovery, evolution, and development of new technology as Sputnik 1’s launch brought us to the technological age that we now enjoy. But second, its rocket body was officially the first piece of space debris to be left in orbit after a launch.

October 4th, 1957 was the day that we entered space and sadly, the day we first started leaving our garbage there.

Since that first dump, there have been 8,593 spacecrafts launched from the countries around the globe: Russia, United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Israel, Brazil, South Korea…the list goes on. But when you understand that every single one of those 8,593 launches left some degree of space debris behind, you may start to see the problem.

What is space debris?

According to NASA, the term space debris actually encompasses both natural particles (meteoroids mostly in orbit around the sun) and artificial particles (man-made debris mostly in orbit around the Earth).

NASA and the IADC (Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee) define space debris as any man-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer serves a useful function.
Some examples…

Nonfunctional satellites :  Every year, hundreds of satellites are launched into space by cell phone, television, GPS receiver, and major communication companies. In addition to those eventually aging and failing satellites, there are even more that observe everything from weather and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to those that look away from Earth to study the stars. Regardless of their purpose, all satellites eventually wear out over time. They are really no different than the machines we have on Earth.

Abandoned launch vehicle stages :  Modern space shuttles are actually a piggyback of several rockets stacked on top of one another. When space shuttles launch it usually takes more than one rocket to power them into space. The additional rockets are fired off in stages. The final stages, or upper stages, expel material from the spacecraft that can easily get trapped in the Earth’s orbit.
Note: This upper stage debris is often some of the largest left in space (remember Sputnik 1’s rocket body?)

If there is so much of it, why can’t we see space debris?

When we look at breathtaking images of Earth, we don’t see the landfill (space-fill as we like to call it) that surrounds it because of size ratio. The Earth is 7,917.5 miles across and much of the space debris is simply traveling too fast and is just too small in comparison.

How does space debris cause problems in space?

Let’s take a quick look at space debris and its need for speed.

Space debris travels at roughly 17,500 mph. That speed is hard to fathom, even with the keenest of imaginations. For the sake of making our point, let’s give it a shot.

17,500 mph is nearly seven times faster than a speeding bullet (a bullets travel at roughly 1,700 mph). At that speed, space debris can cause extensive damage to anything that it collides with.

To make matters worse, space debris isn’t colliding with stationary objects. According to NASA, the average impact speed of a piece of orbital debris running into another moving object is 22,370 miles per hour (roughly 13x faster than a speeding bullet).
NASA also points out that being hit by a piece of debris smaller than half an inch around, as it travels at about six miles per second, would be like being hit by a bowling ball traveling at 300 miles per hour.

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