From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Space debris aroundEarth from a top-down view. The cloud of objects in the center are objects inlow Earth orbit, and the ring on the edge is objects ingeostationary orbit.
Space debris is the collection of useless objects that are inorbit aroundEarth, for example brokensatellites, emptyrocket stages, pieces of metal, and many more. Because of how much space debris there is,collisions happen between space debris and sometimes even operationalspacecraft, creating more debris.
Since the start of space programs and the launch ofSputnik 1,NORAD has an active list of all known space launches and objects that are in Earth orbit, includingwaste parts, for example booster rockets. This is the Space Object Catalog.
