In early 2007, a multistage missile was launched from the Xinchang Satellite Launch Center in China. Its payload a 750kg kinetic kill vehicle. The target a perfectly harmless weather monitoring satellite. The massive projectile smashed into the satellite at a tremendous 8km/s totally obliterating it in the process. Disappointingly there were no cameras around to witness the undoubtedly spectacular event. But despite how cool it may seem, destroying satellites in this manner (even if they do belong to you) is an immensely stupid idea. Heres why the test produced an estimated 150,000 pieces of space debris, 2300 of which are bigger than a golf ball and all are travelling at round 20 times the speed of a rifle bullet during flight. If youve ever seen Gravity, you dont need to imagine what happens if one of these things hits you in the face. In case you were wondering, nobody actually knows just how many pieces of space debris there are its estimated to be in the millions. Even tiny flecks of paint travelling at such a high speed have been known to damage spacecraft, and the real problem is that there doesnt seem to be any feasible way to track these tiny projectiles, meaning that collisions are quite often unavoidable.
