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On Nov. 9, 2011, Russias Phobos-Grunt was launched, but was lost due to propulsion failure and stuck in the low-earth orbit (LEO). It is speculated that this piece of debris will fall back to Earth on Jan. 15. Having space debris fall out of the sky isnt such a shocking experience anymore theres more than 500,000 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth.

News and events visually

12,000

Projected numbers of orbital space junk

Debris higher than 1,000 km will continue circling Earth for a century or Debris at more. 800 km will stay in orbit for Debris decades. in orbit below 600 km normally fall back to Earth within several years.

junk in Image of space it low-earth orb

e biting man-mad About 8,000 or rger than 4 are objects la tracked by the currently being nce Network. rveilla U.S. Space Su ns more, There are millio to be ey are to small although th d. tracke

84%

10,000 8,000

Total

of debris is approximately 800 kms out.

6,000

Collision fragments

25,000 km/h
Speed at which debris travels (fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft) Rocket bodies

4,000 Explosion fragments 2,000 Intacts & mission-related debris 30 70 50

pieces of debris 15% orbit the earth

8,000

1950

90

2110

30

90

70

2010

2210

90

70

50

Orbital debris: Any man-made object in orbit around Earth which no longer serves a useful purpose.
Includes: Derelict spacecraft Debris released during spacecraft mission operations Debris from spacecraft explosions or collisions Tiny ecks of paint
Sources: NASA; United States Space Surveillance Network

In 1996, a French satellite was hit and damaged by debris from a French rocket that had exploded a decade earlier. On Feb. 10, 2009, a defunct Russian satellite collided with and destroyed a functioning U.S. Iridium commercial satellite. The collision added more than 2,000 pieces of trackable debris to the inventory of space junk. Chinas 2007 anti-satellite test, which used a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, added more than 3,000 pieces to the debris problem.

Crash!

Operational satellites

7%

78%
Fragmentation & inactive satellites

Even tiny paint ecks can damage a spacecraft when traveling at these velocities. In fact a number of space shuttle windows have been replaced because of damage caused by material that was analyzed and shown to be paint ecks.

SUSAN BATSFORD, GRAPHICS EDITOR, TWITTER @SBATS1; INFOGRAPHIC BY TARA CORRAN/QMI AGENCY