Aerospace: Collision avoidance in space: Proliferating payloads and space debris prompt action to prevent accidents

Space is infinite; yet the space in Earth's orbit is finite, and collisions in space between man-launched objects have become a threat. As the number and size of orbiting space stations continue to grow, there is increasing danger that they will hit some fragment of “junk” — spent rockets, dead payloads, fragments from explosions and collisions in space, and the like. This “junk” could threaten smaller spacecraft because of the increasing number of fragments from collisions of pieces of debris.