In 1957, Sputnik was launched into orbit as the world's first artificial satellite.

Today, 64 years later, there are more than a million objects larger than one centimeter

floating around the Earth.

And almost all of these objects in orbit were not put

there intentionally. Learn more about space junk, the problem and possible

solutions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Curiosity Stream.

If you're interested in the space program and planetary missions, you have to check out Curiosity Stream.

They have shows on the recent Hayabusa

asteroid sample mission, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and the current

Perseverance Marslander. They have many, many more shows, including one on

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Since 1957, humanity has been launching satellites into Earth orbit.

It's estimated in the last 64 years almost 9,000 satellites in total have been put into orbit.

For the vast majority of space age, there was never a plan for what would be done with the satellites after their lifetime.

They were launched without any thought as to how or if they could ever come down.

Of the 9,000 or so satellites 5,000 are still in orbit. 2,000

are in service and 3,000 are dead. These satellites are usually quite large. They can vary in size from a bus to a box.

And they aren't the real problem when it comes to space junk. The big problem is debris.

When you send up a rocket, there's all sorts of miscellaneous parts on the upper stage of the rocket that holds the satellite that will go into orbit with it.

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