TWO SATELLITES COLLIDE IN ORBIT
A broadside collision between two satellites -- one of them an operational Iridium communications relay -- was the worst orbital accident on record and may wind up rivaling the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapon test in the debris cloud it created. —Aviation Week
Open your eyes
to outer space
and you’ll see the debris
from a satellite crash.
I wonder how loud
the clang would have been
if sound waves could spread
where there’s no atmosphere.
If Earth had an ear
to hear it, her head,
from such a great din,
would split. A huge shroud
of rubble, like ash
from volcanoes, is free
to ram and erase
anything in the skies.
— Martin Elster
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