Debris from rockets and satellites can fall back to Earth or collide with other objects, and wreckage that burns up can harm the ozone layer.
For Lawler, the incident drove home the growing problem of space junk—and left her with a sense of dread that’s never quite gone away. “Actually standing next to the pieces and thinking about them falling at terminal velocity [about 165 feet per second]—that is terrifying.”
Read the feature story at Smithsonian.
