Satellite Joins Cosmic Junkyard

When that Italian satellite broke loose from the space shuttle Columbia and floated away, it joined more than 7,000 pieces of junk that increasingly threaten space collisions near the Earth.

A government report, written before Sunday night’s break in the satellite’s tether, warns that man-made space junk is more hazardous than meteoroids to spacecraft that operate below 1,250 miles altitude.

The space shuttle usually flies in a 200-mile high orbit and the space station now being built will be in a similar range. In addition, proposals now on the drawing board envision a tiara of environmental monitors spaced in orbit around Earth.

Chances are that the amount of debris will increase as orbiting objects collide and break apart, forming more pieces of debris, the report said.

Small debris that includes lens caps, separation and packing devices for satellite delivery, empty propellant tanks, spent and intact rocket bodies and payload shrouds, remain in near-Earth orbit for years to come.

The U.S. Space Command tracks objects larger than four inches, more than 7,000 of them. The report estimates that 110,000 objects ranging in size from 0.4 inches to 4 inches are in low-Earth orbit along with 35 million smaller specks.