Can we solve our space junk problem?

Conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt global shipping routes including the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca. China is now turning to Russia for support in developing an alternative trade path: the Northern Sea Route. On 15 August, China sent its first ship on ...  Show more

Just under 20 years ago Kenya pioneered the use of mobile money. Since then, other countries in Africa have carved out a share of the digital market for themselves, from gaming in Morocco to artificial intelligence in Tunisia. But the picture is not the same across the whole cont ...  Show more

Since the dawn of Sputnik in 1957, space-faring nations have been filling Earth's orbit with satellites. Think GPS, weather forecasting, telecommunications satellites. But as those have increased, so, too, has space junk. On today's show, we talk about the first mission to clean ...  Show more

Space junk. It might sound like an out-of-this-world problem that we don’t need to worry about here on Earth – but is it? As we send more and more metal in the form of satellites up into space, scientists are warning it is becoming more of a risk both here – and up there. We dig ...  Show more

Astronomy Cast Ep. 591: What Are We Gonna Do With All That Space Junk? by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Remember the good old days when there were only a few thousand living and dead satellites? Well, those days are long over. We're now entering an era where there will be tens of ...  Show more

At any given moment Earth is orbited by an estimated 126 million pieces of space junk. How it'd it get up there? Will it fall down? What kind of problems is it causing for astronauts?