Junk in Space. An article in the St. Petersburg Times on Monday, December 15, 2008.

How much junk is out in space? The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is tracking more than 17,000 pieces of "orbital debris" with the size of 4 inches. Some of those objects are considerably larger, such as the tank of coolant that landed in the South Pacific earlier this month. It was described as about the size of a refrigerator. More than 300,000 pieces are larger than a half-inch and are detectable but not being tracked, so we don't know where they are at any particular time. For interesting photos and computer models of the debris, check out this NASA Web site: orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photogallery/photogallery.html.