---
title: Waste in Space
date: 2014-10-06T00:35:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/waste-in-space"
section: Articles
---
# Waste in Space

*October 6, 2014* — by [David Kohn](/authors/david-kohn)


> New UMD Center Seeks to Limit Junk in Orbit

*Raymond Sedwick, associate professor of aerospace engineering*

**In 1957,** space was utterly, pristinely free of humanity. The Russians sent up *Sputnik* that year, and since then, humans have polluted space with all manner of flying machines and the junk that breaks or falls from them. These millions of objects, including rocket boosters, fuel tanks, screws, paint flecks, even a spatula, zoom around the Earth at speeds of up to 25,000 mph.

This ever-growing detritus could collide with satellites or other spacecraft, experts say. If left unchecked, it has the potential to eventually cripple global communications and space-based scientific research.

“The risks are growing,” says Raymond Sedwick, associate professor of aerospace engineering. “If we don’t deal with it, eventually it’ll be too late.”

He recently launched the [Center for Orbital Debris Education and Research](http://www.coder.umd.edu/) (CODER), which he hopes will become a focal point for academic, industry and government research collaboration.

“There is a real need for a center like this,” says David Spencer, a professor of aerospace engineering at Penn State University who has been studying space debris for more than 30 years. “Right now we don’t have a centralized clearinghouse that includes private industry, government and academia. I think this center will do that.”


*No brooms for this debris. Space debris comes in all shapes and sizes, with the smallest detected by ground-based radar and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network tracking the largest: 100,000,000+ at smaller than 1 centimeter diameter. 500,000 at between 1 and 10 centimeter diameter. 22,000 at larger than 10 centimeter diameter. One of the largest pieces of debris is the Envisat Earth-observing satellite, which lost contact with its handlers in 2012. The $2.9 billion spacecraft is the size of a school bus. Two events created about one-third of all orbital junk: In 2007, China used a missile to blow up an old weather satellite, and two years later. American and Russian communications satellites collided. The greatest concentration of all debris is 460-500 miles above the Earth's surface. Most of that will stay aloft for decades before falling to Earth, while debris higher than 600 miles will remain in orbit for a century or longer. — Sources: Nasa, Raymond Sedwick*




**Issue:** [Fall 2014](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2014)


**Types:** [Innovation](https://terp.umd.edu/category/innovation)