Orbital debris is any human-made object in orbit about the Earth that no longer serves a useful function. Such debris includes nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris, and fragmentation debris.
Vanguard 1[1], designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle as a part of Project Vanguard, and the effects of the space environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit was launched by the USA on March 17, 1958, is the oldest piece of space junk. It stopped operating in 1964 but will continue orbiting Earth for 240 years.
Happy Birthday to me
On Wednesday, May 14, 1958, I was born at St. Joesph Hospital in downtown Atlanta Georgia, under the star sign Taurus, the Chinese Zodiak sign of the Dog, making me a baby boomer. The president was Dwight D. Eisenhower and the number one song was “Who’s Sorry Now” by Connie Francis. “U.S. Troops Flown to the Caribbean After Venezuelans Mob the Nixons” was the headline on May 14, 1958 on The Atlanta Constitution newspaper.
