An Overview of the Space Debris Issue

Extract

The amount of man-made debris in orbit is now sufficient to create a flux in some regions of low Earth orbit which exceeds the flux of natural meteoroids. The primary source for this debris is from the fragmentation, or disintegration, of spacecraft. Future debris can be expected to result from random collisions between orbiting objects. This debris will require additional shielding for some spacecraft, will contaminate some types of meteoroid experiments, and contaminate some types of astronomical observations. Steps are being taken to minimize the accumulation of future debris.