Space Crap and the joy it brings

Apparently we've been pretty messy roommates in the universe. There are hundreds of satellites cruising around the Earth, along with 10,000 items of space debris.

Everytime we sent a ship up into space that had a stage-separation or retro-rocket or something that detached... well it's still up there floating around.

And now things are starting to hit one another.

A commercial satellite owned by a U.S. company was destroyed in a collision with a defunct Russian military satellite in what NASA said was the first such accident in orbit, raising new concerns about the dangers of space debris.

The crash, which happened Tuesday in low-earth orbit, involved one of the satellites owned by closely held Iridium Satellite LLC and a crippled Russian military satellite that apparently stopped functioning years ago, according to U.S. government and satellite-industry officials.

The collision created two large clouds of debris floating roughly 480 miles above Siberia, and prompted space scientists and engineers to assess the likelihood of further collisions.

Considering how much money it takes to get these satellites into orbit, we've got to be worried about the junk we have flying around here. This can officially be classified as our first "Space-accident." Apparently, the Russians forgot to signal.

And now keep in mind that these are two satellites, and the possibility of something important hitting space debris is much more possible because apparently we treat outer space like the front of our 1/8 acre trailerhouse parcel.

Also, orbits generally deteriorate over years and this stuff ends up falling out of orbit and into the atmosphere. However, there are probably items big enough to make it through re-entry. Not 10,000 but there's probably a large amount of junk that could fall back onto the planet.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to move my car so that a Stage 4 Saturn Booster doesn't land on my car.