Earth-Orbiting Junk at 22,000 Mph Threatens Trump’s Space Force

A chunk of aluminum about the size of an aspirin tablet could strike a spacecraft with the force of a 400-pound safe traveling at 60 miles per hour.

Like the plastic collecting in Earth’s oceans, junk like paint flecks, nonfunctioning spacecraft, defunct satellites, and rocket boosters have accumulated in Earth’s orbit over 60 years of space flight. For all the damage that tiny chunks of debris can create, there are 34,000 objects 10 centimeters or larger that pose an increasing threat to survival in space.

No comprehensive strategy has been drawn up to clean the debris even as more satellites ...