Space Junk! See how much orbital debris has grown since 1960

As we increasingly send more and more rockets, satellites and more into Earth Orbit, we are are creating a trash ring around the Earth, some of it endangering the ISS and the Astronauts aboard it... In a News clip from Space.com, The International Space Station just dodged a fast-moving hunk of orbiting junk.

"Controllers maneuvered the station away from a potential collision with a piece of debris today (Sept. 22) at 5:19 p.m. EDT (2119 GMT). They did so by firing the thrusters on a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft that's docked to the orbiting lab's Zvezda service module, NASA officials said in an update today."

"The three astronauts currently living aboard the station — NASA's Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner — sheltered in the station's Russian segment during the maneuver to be closer to their Soyuz spacecraft, the NASA update stated."

"This was done "out of an abundance of caution," the update said. "At no time was the crew in any danger."

"Space junk is a growing problem in Earth orbit. Nearly 129 million pieces of debris are whizzing around our planet at the moment, about 34,000 of which are more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide, according to estimates by the European Space Agency.

At the International Space Station's altitude, roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) up, material zooms around Earth at about 17,500 mph (28,200 kph) — so fast that a collision with even a tiny shard of debris could do serious damage to the orbiting lab. " Quotes are from Space.com

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