Earlier in March this year, the 18 Space Control Squadron (18SPCS), a body that detects, tracks, and identifies artificial objects in Earth's orbit reported that the Chinese satellite, Yunhai 1-02 had broken up in space and it was tracking 21 pieces of the debris. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell recently came across the likely cause of the incident, debris from a Russian rocket launched in 1996.

The European Space Agency actually has a Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany that keeps track of the trash objects that are orbiting around our planet. According to their latest numbers, there have been 570 incidents of breakups, explosions, and collisions in space that have resulted in debris formation and there are likely to be 34,000 pieces of space trash that are at least 3.9 inches (10 cm) in size or bigger. While Space Surveillance Agencies catalog and track about 29,110 debris objects in space, this is just a small fraction of the total number of debris pieces in the Earth's orbit. Statistical models suggest that their number would be around 128 million with sizes ranging from 0.03 inches (1 mm) to 3.9 inches (10 cm) and beyond.

Before we begin leisure trips into space, the Earth's orbit is filled with trash that is not only ugly to look at but can even be dangerous. SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk has also pondered if his two-stage megarocket, Starship, could be commissioned to chomp off space debris, during its other missions, in a bid to reduce the outdoor mess we have created.