Yesterday NASA launched the final repair mission for the Hubble space telescope and, for the first time in history, had a back up shuttle ready to launch in case of an in-air emergency (ie collision).
The worry is that space, orbital space at least, is getting full. Hubble orbits at about 350 miles up, which is prime real estate for our gravitational pull.
The image here was provided by the folks at NASA and those white dots aren't dandruff, but all the space junk NASA is tracking. About 95% of it is literally junk.
What goes up doesn't really come down in space (at least not for a long, long time), and there isn't an authoritative governing body saying who can put what where in the cosmos , and there probably won't be for some time. (Dear Russia, the CIA is putting its spy satellite here, is that okay?)
Bottom line, the sky isn't falling, but it sure is filling up fast.
I like this article - really well written. AND makes me want to be a garbageman... for NASA. Never thought I'd say that!
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