In 1997, this 580-pound stainless-steel tank plowed into the ground 50 yards from a Texas farmer's home and 150 yards from a major highway. In Oklahoma, a small piece of charred metal mesh from the same satellite breakup hit a woman in the shoulder but did not injure her.

Chicken Little was right

Sometime this Spring, the Pentagon will use a modified, ship-fired anti-ballistic missile to destroy USA-193, a malfunctioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite, the size of a short bus, which failed after launch in 2006. We're not supposed to worry since most man-made objects re-entering Earth's atmosphere burn up or impact some ocean. Since Sputnik was launched in 1957, the US Space Surveillance Network has tracked more than 26,000 space objects orbiting Earth ranging from multi-ton satellites to 10 pound pieces of spent rocket bodies. They currently track around 8,000 objects (the rest have re-entered), about 600 are operational satellites, 2,000 are non-operational satellites (like the USA-193) the rest are space debris. A hundred or more tracked objects re-enter each year, maybe a dozen or more are similar to the one pictured above. But that's not all. Orbiting Earth are 110,000 objects a centimeter and larger including nuts, bolts, astronaut gloves, MIR garbage bags, and other space missions detritus. Some of the bits and pieces scream along at 17,500 mph and create a significant hazard to operational satellites and humans. A tiny speck of paint from a satellite once dug a pit in a space shuttle window nearly a quarter-inch wide. And don't forget we haven't even included non-man-made objects like asteroids, comets, and minor planetary bodies. NASA, the United Nations, and the Union of Concerned Scientists maintain databases listing operational satellites. NASA's J-Track also has 3D animation of 900 satellites. Looking for real-time satellite and shuttle tracking for your location? Try Heavens-Above or N2YO, N2YO also has a quick link to USA-193. For disturbing imagery, try NASA's Orbital Debris Graphics or Harvard's Animations of solar system objects. For disturbing text try NASA's Near Earth Objects Close-Approaches. Clearly, space is not so much a vacuum as a debris field.

NASA - NSSDC - Master Catalog - Spacecraft

United Nations: Office for Outer Space Affairs

Union of Concerned Scientists Satellite Database

NASA - Science@NASA J-Track 3D

Heavens-Above

N2YO Satellite and Space Shuttle Tracking

N2YO Track USA 193

NASA Orbital Debris Graphics

Harvard Animations Page

NASA Near-Earth Object Close-Approaches