- NEWS FEATURE
Zombie satellites, rocket shards and collision debris are creating major traffic risks in orbits around the planet. Researchers are working to reduce the threats posed by more than 20,000 objects in space.
On Monday 2 July, the CryoSat-2 spacecraft was orbiting as usual, just over 700 kilometres above Earth’s surface. But that day, mission controllers at the European Space Agency (ESA) realized they had a problem: a piece of space debris was hurtling uncontrollably towards the €140-million (US$162-million) satellite, which monitors ice on the planet.
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Nature 561, 24-26 (2018)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06170-1
Falling space debris traced to 1998 lunar mission
Private firms spy a market in spotting space junk
Telescope will track space junk
