Not all space junk stays in orbit, with some returning to Earth or burning up on re-entry. To date, Lottie Williams is the only person to have been hit by space waste – a six inch metal shard from the fuel tank of a Delta II rocket from a 1996 US Air Force satellite launch. Hit in the shoulder while walking through an Oklahoma park on January 22, 1997, she was very lucky not to have been injured.
A $2700 spatula lost by spacewalker Piers Sellers in July this year was nicknamed “Spatsat” and is expected to return to Earth in a fireball some time this month. A stray spatula in space is a curiousity, but there have been all manner of unusual bits and pieces soaring about in the heavens above.
Ed White lost a glove on the first American spacewalk in 1965, cosmonaut Michael Collins misplaced his camera near the Gemini 10 spacecraft in 1966, while other astronauts are missing a toothbrush and a ham sandwich. In early February 2006, the crew of the International Space Station stuffed an old Russian spacesuit with clothes, attached a radio transmitter, and deliberately pushed it out into space. Known as Suitsat-1, the radio signal weakened unexpectedly after orbiting the Earth twice, and finally burned up in the atmosphere on September 2.
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Article comments
1 - duane
I have a plan for cleaning up. Hundreds of old guys. Space suits. Metal detectors. They get to keep whatever they find.
2 - StinkEY
My trailer was hit with a giant turd. NASA came out and bought it for $10,000.00. Was that a good deal? Let me know. Thanks
3 - taylor
i wish my trailer got hit with a giant turd...that would be the easiest way i know to make good money fast!
4 - eustace
hi megan whats goin on?!?!?!?
5 - jonny
hi im jonny, i sold a rock on the internet for 12$ it fell out of the sky...should i have tried to sell it to nasa for more?
6 - duane
On January 11, China conducted an anti-satellite test -- an aging weather satellite was blown to pieces by a ballistic missile. There are now, in theory, about 800 new chunks of metal scraps in orbit at anout 500 miles altitude, which will eventually pose a threat to the lower-altitude satellite population.