Special Edition: Our Space Junk Problem

Published: March 5, 2022, 8:15 a.m.

What happens to the stuff we send to space when it breaks or collides with something else? A lot of it turns into what\u2019s often referred to as \u2018space junk.\u2019 There are thousands of pieces of junk orbiting Earth all the time.

Just this week, one of those pieces - an old rocket - crashed into the moon. There was no major impact on Earth from that rocket part but other space junk could be more of a threat.

Today I\u2019m joined by renowned space environmentalist and astrodynamicist Dr. Moriba Jah from the University of Texas. He\u2019s credited with developing the world\u2019s first crowd-sourced tool to better track objects in space. He\u2019s also the co-founder and chief scientist for Privateer Space, a company working to monitor satellites and debris in Earth\u2019s orbit like never before.

We spoke with Dr. Jah just before the rocket hit the moon. He told us space junk is a much bigger problem than that one rocket and has the power to disrupt not only our future in space, but life here on Earth.

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