The Hidden Weight of Orbital Trash
Near-Earth orbit is not empty; thousands of trackable fragments larger than 10 cm and countless smaller debris drift at orbital speeds, enough to threaten spacecraft with a single collision. Even tiny flecks can damage hulls at several kilometers per second. A high-energy event can seed a debris cascade (Kessler syndrome), multiplying risk and driving shared surveillance, end-of-life disposal rules, and debris-removal tests.
