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	SPACE.com -- Space Junk
		Of the total, 2,671 are satellites (working or not), 90 are space probes that have been launched out of Earth orbit, and 6096 are mere chunks of debris zooming around the third planet from the Sun.
		The most space debris created by a spacecraft's destruction was due to the upper stage of a Pegasus rocket launched in 1994.
		Astrosociology is the study of astrosocial phenomena (social/cultural patterns related to space), a multidisciplinary field open to all scientists and engineers interested in "space and society" issues.
	www.space.com /spacewatch/space_junk.html (853 words)

	United Nations System-Wide EARTHWATCH > Solid Wastes > Space junk
		One solid waste problem requiring increased efforts at minimization is space junk, the increasing amount of debris from old rockets and satellites orbiting the earth.
		The risks to the international space station, with a surface area of some 11 000 square meters when completed, are alarmingly high (Kiernan, 1997a).
		Chances of penetration by orbiting space junk and meteors were calculated in 1996 to be 1% per year (David, 1996).
	earthwatch.unep.net /solidwaste/spacejunk.php (378 words)

	Recycling Space Junk (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		Junk in low Earth orbit (up to the altitude of 2000 kilometers) is about 2000 tons.
		Junk in the geostationary orbit needs just a little nudge to be corralled into one lump, but junk in the unpredictable, low Earth orbits is much more difficult to remove.
		Junk electrotube is a very cheap version of a versatile and reusable system of space transportation called composite electrotube.
	www.islandone.org /LEOBiblio/SPBI1RE.HTM (432 words)

	Space Today Online -- Space Factoids -- part 4
		Space shuttle astronauts have to keep track of 5,000 loose items such as photo equipment, supplies, food, tools, hygiene materials, payload parts and spares.
		The Hubble Space Telescope, which turned out to have blurry vision after launch in 1990, was fitted with eye glasses when astronaut repairmen visited the satellite in a 1994 shuttle flight.
		The USSR space shuttle Buran flew unmanned on its maiden voyage November 15, 1988.
	www.spacetoday.org /History/SpaceFactoids/SpaceFactoids4.html (1998 words)

	High-flying junk
		Space may seem empty, until you whack up against a tiny particle that makes "faster than a speeding bullet" seem pokier than a trudging tortoise.
		To learn about space junk, NASA launched the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite in 1984 and returned it to Earth in 1990.
		That proportion could be rising because space junk is apparently proliferating like cast-off clothing in a dusty attic: Each collision can form new particles that become new space junk.
	www.whyfiles.org /101spaceflaw/5.html (642 words)

	Physics and Astronomy Forums - Space Junk
		Most space junk put up from the USA is launched in Florida which takes advantage of the Earth's rotation to give a 1600 km/h boost, at no cost, to the orbiting speed.
		Space debris, trash cast off by humans and spacecraft while in Earth orbit, ranges from derelict satellites to expended stages and other components of launch vehicles.
		The detector is to be mounted on the ISS primarily by a space walker, with perhaps an assist from a robot arm.
	www.physlink.com /community/Forums/printthread.cfm?Forum=18&Topic=2177 (1532 words)

	New Scientist Breaking News - 'Space sheepdogs' could round up space junk (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		An aerospace company is proposing to deploy what it calls a "space sheepdog" to usher space junk safely out of orbit.
		Most of the junk is accounted for by a relatively small number of large items such as spent launchers and dead satellites, which are easy to track and avoid.
		He suggests using the momentum of a large mass of collected junk to boost the orbit of a working spacecraft by transferring momentum from the junk to the spacecraft.
	www.newscientist.com /article.ns?id=dn3268 (620 words)

	BBC - Science & Nature - Space - Space Junk
		Since the first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in 1957, thousands of space probes, satellites and telescopes have been sent into space.
		NASA frequently replace windows on the space shuttle that have been damaged by objects as small as a flake of paint.
		One study showed that a craft that had been in space for more than five years was struck by particles more than 30,000 times, with no ill effect.
	www.bbc.co.uk /science/space/solarsystem/earth/spacejunk.shtml (617 words)

	Will Military Operations Litter Space with Junk? - Popular Science
		In 1983, when Ride, the first woman to travel to space, was aboard the Challenger space shuttle, it was hit by a piece of space junk.
		Space junk can reach relative velocities of 30,000 mph—speeds at which it can cause serious damage.
		NASA is now requesting all users of space to make sure their rockets are completely drained of fuel and suggests that all objects be placed in orbits that eventually expire.
	www.popsci.com /popsci/aviationspace/1ec85b4a1db84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html (699 words)

	Mir Space Junk / Honest, You Needn't Duck
		Moreover, at the U.S. Space Command (USSPC) under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, there are only two pieces of space junk on display -- a piece from the lunar landing module and a chunk of a Russian space ship.
		The space command's global network of radar and optical sensors -- capable of tracking a man-made object in space as small as a Magic Marker -- tracks about 8,300 satellites and junk in space, all traveling about 17,000 mph.
		The number of new objects being launched into space each year is about 5 percent higher than the number burning up on their return or being thrown farther out in space and out of the way, he said.
	www.sfgate.com /cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/23/MN235463.DTL&type=printable (1094 words)

	CityBeat: Science & Technology (2001-06-14)
		On March 14, NASA moved the International Space Station to avoid part of a foot-restraint system traveling toward the station at 17,000 miles per hour after being dropped by clumsy U.S. astronaut Jim Voss during a routine space walk.
		Space debris at altitudes exceeding 1,000 kilometers will continue to orbit for over a century, gradually being drawn closer to Earth by its gravitational pull.
		Since 1988, National Space Policy has required all space missions to reduce or minimize accumulation of space debris; internationally, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee encourages the same measures of its members, which include space agencies from Europe, Russia, Japan, China and the United States.
	www.citybeat.com /2001-06-14/scitech.shtml (986 words)

	Lots in space \| csmonitor.com
		This hardware can yield space junk in several ways: When satellites separate from their boosters, they shed shrouds and other bits and pieces.
		Space shuttles have been guided out of the way of potentially threatening debris at least eight times.
		Confronted with growing space debris, the FCC is proposing that applicants for new commercial satellites show that the craft is robust enough to prevent fragmenting in the face of any remaining fuel, pressurization, or sudden discharge of the crafts batteries.
	www.csmonitor.com /2003/1009/p11s02-stss.htm (1182 words)

	USATODAY.com - Junk spooks space dwellers inside space station (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		MOSCOW (AP) — A small piece of space junk slammed against the hull of the international space station, causing no apparent damage but startling the two men inside with its grinding, metallic sound, a Russian official said Thursday.
		A spokesman for the Russian Space Forces, a military branch that monitors Russia's satellites but also keeps track of the space station, said in a telephone interview that the orbiter had collided with a piece of debris.
		The spokesman, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the space forces had detected an object along the station's orbit, and had determined that it was very small and would pose no danger to the craft.
	www.usatoday.com /news/science/2003-11-27-space-junk_x.htm (426 words)

	Russell D. Hoffman Discusses SPACE DEBRIS
		After all, space exploration is the epitome of high technology and is one of the most exciting things we have ever had a chance to be involved in.
		That's how fragile outer space in near earth orbit is. When a 5000 pound satellite is exploded in near earth orbit it can create tens of thousands or even millions of pieces of space debris which will orbit the earth for tens of thousands or even millions of years.
		On several space shuttle missions, course corrections have had to be made to avoid a collision with a known item of space debris.
	www.animatedsoftware.com /spacedeb/spacedeb.htm (3288 words)

	Spacecraft operations Portal - Home - Space Debris
		In 43 years of space activities some 4100 launches led to more than 26000 observable space objects (larger than 10 cm) of which currently 8700 are still on orbit.
		Only 7% of the catalogued orbit population are operational spacecraft, while 50% can be attributed to decommissioned satellites, spent upper stages, and mission related objects (launch adapters, lens covers, etc.) The remainder of 43% is originating from 160 on-orbit fragmentations which have been recorded since 1961.
		Currently, space debris between 1 cm and 10 cm are neither observable, nor are they shieldable with available on-orbit technology.
	www.esa.int /spacecraftops/ESOC-Article-fullArticle_par-40_1092735450198.html (923 words)

	CNN.com - Sci-Tech - Space - Discovery dodges space junk - March 14, 2001
		Discovery commander James Wetherbee had to fire the space shuttle's steering rockets a little earlier than planned Wednesday to boost the shuttle and the attached international space station out of the way of some space junk.
		The 'junk' was a portable foot restraint, a viselike device that allows astronauts to clamp onto the shuttle's robot arm during spacewalks.
		Leonardo was lifted from Discovery's cargo bay early Monday and attached to the space station.
	archives.cnn.com /2001/TECH/space/03/14/shuttle.03 (563 words)

	New space station moved up to avoid space junk (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., which tracks orbiting objects, notified NASA over the weekend that a spent Pegasus rocket body would pass within a mile of the space station on Wednesday, Herring said.
		NASA planned to boost the orbit of the space station anyway early next year as part of a test for the arrival of the next piece, a Russian module equipped with all the life-support systems.
		When the first two pieces of the space station were launched late last year, NASA predicted the complex would have to be moved about twice a year to avoid orbiting debris, Herring said.
	www.chron.com /content/interactive/space/station/stories/1999/991026.html (257 words)

	Junk in Space (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		There are currently millions of man-made orbital ruins that make up "space junk".
		Space junk can be anything from hatches blown off space modules, paint fragments from the space shuttle, or satellites that no longer work.
		Each time you capture junk, you also find a short description of the junk, how it arrived in space and links to additional information.
	serc.carleton.edu /resources/1069.html (129 words)

	Space Junk's Hidden Danger \| Germany \| Deutsche Welle \| 01.03.2003
		There are more than 10,000 bits of "space junk" in orbit, some of which could have damaged the space shuttle Columbia.
		Space debris, the refuse of exploded satellites, has been a major concern for international scientists and space flight officials sending manned spacecraft into orbit for years.
		NASA is still not ruling out the possibility that the Columbia space shuttle was damaged in-flight by some space debris, leading to its eventual disintegration as it re-entered the earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003.
	www.dw-world.de /dw/article/0,,789149,00.html (750 words)

	No Way!: Space Junk
		Since the start of space exploration in the late 1950s, dozens of countries and corporations have left thousands of hunks of junk screaming through space.
		So the best way to reduce space junk is to limit its amount in the first place.
		Engineers at NASA and other space organizations are designing spacecraft to leave less junk in space and to "de-orbit" space junk faster.
	express.howstuffworks.com /nw-space-junk.htm (609 words)

	After Space Junk Goes Up, It Must Come Down, Alaska Science Forum
		Space Command knows when a large rocket is launched from anywhere on Earth.
		Space Command scientists have calculated the orbits of all 8,000 pieces of hardware zooming around the Earth, Planalp said.
		Though Space Command scientists can pinpoint where manmade space debris will collide with Earth's atmosphere, Planalp said there is no way to predict whether the junk will skip off the atmosphere like a flat stone on water or whether it will plunge to Earth.
	www.gi.alaska.edu /ScienceForum/ASF13/1310.html (691 words)

	CNN.com - China keeps watch on space junk - Oct. 7, 2003
		Closely tied to the military, China's space program is surrounded by high levels of secrecy with even the identities of the first trained group of 14 astronauts kept as a closely guarded state secret.
		Aside from the obvious dangers of riding into the vacuum of space aboard a highly explosive rocket, one potential threat to a spacecraft's survivability is space debris -- the leftover junk from previous launches or worn out satellites.
		There are thought to be millions of pieces of junk orbiting the Earth -- ranging from discarded rocket casings, to flecks of paint, to spanners misplaced by clumsy astronauts -- all speeding around the planet at a potentially lethal velocity.
	edition.cnn.com /2003/TECH/space/08/11/china.space (507 words)

	Liftoff to Space Exploration: Fundamentals (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The remaining objects are orbital debris: parts such as nosecone shrouds, lens, hatch covers, rocket bodies, payloads that have disintegrated or exploded, and even objects that "escape" from manned spacecraft during operations.
		Space Shuttle Columbia is now in orbit for mission STS-107.
		The Space Station is not just the biggest things humans have put in space, it is now one of the brightest objects in our sky.
	liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov /toc.asp?s=Tracking (509 words)

	A bizarre way to find space junk
		IN A bid to predict the threat to satellites from space debris, the European Space Agency is teaming up with a pair of physicists who spend their time smashing eggshells.
		Since the space age began in the 1950s, there have been almost 200 explosions in orbit, just under half of which involved old rocket bodies.
		In a bid to estimate the danger from fragments in the 1 to 10-centimetre range, ESA ran experiments in the early 1990s in which rocket fuel was used to blow up metal cylinders in an underground bunker.
	www.eurekalert.org /pub_releases/2004-07/ns-abw071404.php (807 words)

	Will Space Junk Bring Down The Space Initiative
		So it isn't any surprise that the "space journalism" community has mostly missed the most important news story since the Columbia crash: the near-destruction of the International Space Station by an orbital debris strike at 2:59 AM Eastern Time on 26 November 2003, and the narrow escape of the two crewmen from unpleasant deaths.
		The "Stuffed Whipple Shield" on ISS is supposed to work as follows: A space junk fragment hits the outer aluminum "bumper layer" and explodes due to the kinetic energy of its ~10km/sec velocity.
		The Russian space surveillance organization added to its growing reputation for incompetence by releasing two contradictory stories, one claiming that its radars had detected a fragment knocked off the station, and another saying that no such detection had been made.
	www.spacedaily.com /news/spacetravel-04i.html (2813 words)

	Astronomy & Space
		Discovery, Hubble dodge space junk SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Carrying a crew of seven and the Hubble Telescope, space shuttle Discovery fled to a safer, higher orbit Saturday to avoid a piece of space junk the size of a book.
		EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY Space Debris Activities at ESOC Introduction to Space Debris In 39 years of space activities some 3750 launches led to more than 23000 observable space objects (larger than 10 cm) of which currently 7500 are still on orbit...
		Space Surveillance Mission Space surveillance is a critical part of USSPACECOM's mission and involves detecting, tracking, cataloging and identifying man-made objects orbiting Earth, i.e.
	groups.msn.com /AstronomySpace/spacejunk.msnw (702 words)

	Honolulu Star-Bulletin News /2005/05/30/
		Talent's specialty is the swarm of orbiting debris that potentially threatens the International Space Station and the shuttle fleet, tentatively due to return to space in late July.
		The stakes are enormous as the space agency prepares to resume flights after the Columbia disaster that grounded the orbiters in February 2003 pending a safety review and procedural overhaul.
		A tiny piece of space junk caused this pit in the window of the Space Shuttle Challenger during its mission in June 1983.
	starbulletin.com /2005/05/30/news/story6.html (980 words)

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