Nearly half the objects orbiting Earth are uncontrollable space junk and jeopardize future space travel

Nearly half the manmade objects orbiting Earth are chunks of “uncontrollable” space junk — with just three countries fueling the problem and endangering future space travel, a shocking new study found.At least 15,587 of the 33,269 tracked objects circling the planet are discarded debris from space launches — meaning a whopping 47% of the stuff hurtling around the planet is potentially hazardous junk, according to a May report from the engineering supply company Accu.Those objects include at least 2,396 discarded rocket bodies — sometimes hundreds of feet across in length — 12,550 expended launch components which can vary in size and shape, and 641 objects which haven’t been classified.The other 17,682 objects are “payloads” — satellites ranging from the likes of SpaceX’s StarLink networks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.But some of those payload satellites are out of commission, which only adds to the amount of junk orbiting Earth.And most alarmingly, many of those bodies of heavy metal junk are whipping around the planet at nearly 20,000 mph every day — posing an enormous risk to other space missions, experts said.“Nearly half of all tracked objects already fall into categories with no control or purpose,” wrote the Accu report, which collated data from the US Space Force’s Space-Track.org for its study.“As a result, spacecraft must now be designed with greater tolerance to debris impacts and more robust shielding, as even a tiny fragment can destroy an entire mission,” the report said.The warning is no exaggeration: In 2016, a fleck of paint or metal just a fraction of a millimeter across left a 7mm-long gouge in a window of the International Space Station.A piece of debris just 10 cm across is enough to blast a satellite to pieces, while a 1 cm bit of junk is considered sufficient to knock a spacecraft out of commission — or even break through the shields of the Space Station, according to the European Space Station.Ast...