Spacecraft afraid of garbage

The US Aerospace Agency (NASA) has to postpone Japan's plan to launch a transport ship to the International Space Station today for fear of hitting a piece of cosmic trash flying around the earth.

Space said that the piece of trash, which is part of an old Russian satellite, is not a threat to the International Space Station (ISS). But it could collide with H-2 Transfer Vehicle - Japan's first unmanned transport vessel - after it takes off.

The Japanese Space Agency wants to launch shipping ships at 1605 GMT on October 30, but NASA scientists predict that the piece could fly over the airspace above the launch site at that time. So NASA decided to postpone the launch until 17:30 GMT on the same day.

Illustrative image of Japanese transport H-2 Transfer Vehicle.(Photo: Spacedev)

Since the Soviet Union put Sputnik 1 satellite into space 51 years ago, humans have created tens of millions of pieces of trash in the universe. According to Daily Mail, the largest piece of cosmic trash is still flying around the earth as a telecommunications satellite called Vanguard 1. It was launched by the US in 1958, ceased in 1964.

There are about 800-1,000 satellites operating in orbit and approximately 17,000 debris and dead satellites. That number is so large that the US Space Monitoring Network does not have enough manpower and equipment to track.

Most cosmic trash will burn in the atmosphere when it falls to the ground . But large objects can touch the ground because they don't burn completely. They often fall into the Pacific or less populated areas.