The Wire

On Thursday the 21st of February a US navy warship deployed a mission to try and destroy a defunct spy satellite orbiting 250 kilometres above the earth. Australian officials are now monitoring the American satellite amid concerns that space junk may cause falling debris within the earth’s atmosphere. But it’s not so much the risk of being hit by space junk that should concern us, but the amount of debris the human race is creating ABOVE the earth’s atmosphere. Interview with Dr John Kennewell, Director of the Australian Space Academy. Sound clips from Futurama episode “A Big Piece of Garbage”.