Orbital Debris Program Office

NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office knows about more than 23,000 bits of orbital debris larger than 10 cm. They estimate 500,000 particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter.

(A pencil is about 1 cm wide.)

Some examples of orbital debris are dead spacecraft and rocket boosters.  Some debris was created when a spacecraft exploded.  Some are just tiny flecks of paint that come off these spacecraft.

The Orbital Debris Program Office says:

"An important source of information about the debris environment is the study of impact pits on surfaces that have been exposed to space in Earth orbit. All spacecraft collide with very small orbital debris particles and meteoroids; consequently, spacecraft surfaces returned to Earth are found to have many small craters resulting from hypervelocity [super-crazy fast] impacts. In most cases, these craters are too small to have any effect on the operation of the spacecraft. However, by examining them, important clues can be obtained on the sources of orbital debris, and the rate that it is changing."

Writer Mickey Kulp says he has sent proposals to several companies and agencies related to debris cleanup. So far, he has no news to report, but he hopes they will decide to adopt some of his ideas.

More info here: https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/

Low Earth orbit (LEO) is the region of space within 2,000 km of the Earth's surface.
It is the most concentrated area for orbital debris. Credit: NASA ODPO 

Space shuttle mission STS-007 came back to Earth with a
small pit in its window thanks to orbital debris. Credit: NASA

How would you clean up orbital debris?  Tell me at

RamoneRocketeer -at- gmail -dot- com.