Orbital space actually is pretty big, but I'm not minimizing the problem, just putting it into perspective. Most space junk is pretty small and equivalent to the threat constantly posed by micrometeorites. The bigger stuff (over 4 inches) is tracked effectively and active spacecraft maneuver to avoid it. Compared to the amount of stuff out there, actual collisions between satellites and debris is small.

For the past 30 years many steps have been taken to reduce space junk. The Russians for many years just threw out bags of garbage into space from the Mir Space Station. They don't do that anymore. Boosters are designed to fall out of orbit and burn in the atmosphere. Low-orbit junk will eventually fall out. Mid-orbit and geo-stationary high orbit satellites are endangered by inactive older satellites, but newer satellites are designed to be parked in graveyard orbits far outside the normal orbit paths where space is even larger.

Anti-satellite missile testing has produced some of the worst space debris. The US and Russia have had a moratorium on it for years, but the Chinese are still conducting it and have made a couple of big messes with thousands of major fragments resulting. Smaller countries are starting to threaten to develop anti-satellite missiles to counter the major powers effective control of space.

A major war with all countries taking out each others satellites could result in rendering some orbits impractical for use for many decades. But failing that, the problem is being dealt with pretty well. You still have a better chance of being struck by an 18-wheeler on the interstate highway than an astronaut has of being hit by space debris.

You think that program is all the knowledge known about space debris? I have been keeping up with this for years.

Sure it is a problem, but it is being addressed and it ain't threatening space programs. How many astronauts have been injured by space debris? None. How many people on earth have been hurt by space debris. None confirmed. Your chances of such are one in 21 Trillion. Of the many thousands of satellites sent into space only a handful have been disabled by space debris and most are old ones that have no remaining fuel to avoid them.

My original comment was that space is pretty huge and that is true. There is junk but most of it is avoidable. And there is a whole lot more space. Evidence shows that no one has ever been killed by space debris, and satellites and space craft have very rarely sustained serious damage from impacts in orbit.

This does not mean that the problem won't get worse and that it won't kill someone in the future. It just means that space is pretty big and we can deal with the debris.

There are people with very expensive schemes to rid us of space junk via giant magnetic nets or vaporizing them with a spaceborn laser. These people have a vested interest in making the problem look ominous, when it is really just an annoyance. Still, in time a solution will have to be found. Meanwhile we just track them and dodge them.

Good NASA graphic of the proliferation of space debris. But it must be understood that those white dots representing debris are greatly exaggerated in size. At scale you would't be able to see a damn one. I mean, it suggests that the low-orbiting debris is a complete wall blocking earth from view, which is certainly not the case. Does space junk block your view of the night sky? Many inactive satellites are visible to the naked eye. How often do you see one? My point is only that space is huge, even orbital space.

To quote the creators of the graphic . . .

The dots are not to scale, and space is a very big place. Collisions between large objects are fairly rare. The orbit of each piece is well known. If any debris comes into the path of an operating NASA satellite, flight controllers will maneuver the satellite out of harm’s way.​

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