Junkmen Needed

Junk is piling up in space and becoming a hazard.

The Chinese weapon test, on Jan. 11, shattered an aging weather satellite into hundreds of bits, in what space experts describe as the worst satellite fracture of the space age.

Soon after that, four more breakups added to the debris problem: On Feb. 2, a new Chinese navigation satellite suffered an apparent engine failure that left it in dozens and perhaps hundreds of pieces. On Feb. 14, an abandoned Russian engine broke into roughly 60 detectable pieces, apparently because residual fuel had exploded.

On Feb. 18, a retired spacecraft jointly developed by China and Brazil suddenly and mysteriously broke into dozens of pieces. American experts suspect it was the victim of a collision with other space debris.

Then on Feb. 19, a large Russian space tug exploded, apparently from residual fuel, creating a cloud of about 1,000 pieces of detectable debris.

We're going to need junkmen to clean it up.



Or more likely, the crew from Planetes