The Nation - News from Feb. 19, 1989

Orbiting space junk could threaten all future spaceflights, manned and unmanned, and must be reduced, according to a government report sponsored by several agencies. The breakup of satellites and rocket bodies was cited as the main source of the orbiting debris, which includes dead satellites, rocket chunks, screws dropped by a U.S. mission and a screwdriver dropped by a space-walking Soviet cosmonaut. The U.S. Space Command tracks more than 7,000 pieces of space junk, but only those to a size of about four inches, and the report said more precise information is needed on smaller chunks.