From RUSSELL EBEST
Your article on space debris is an important reminder of a form of pollution
that is so easily forgotten (‘The junkyard in the sky’, 13 October). There
are, however, a couple of errors that should be corrected. Firstly, the
statement that there have been no major break-ups since 1988 has been superseded
by the explosion that fragmented the last stage of the Chinese rocket that
launched the Feng-Yun weather satellite (and a couple of inflated balloons).
I have tracked several pieces and it is clear that scores of smaller
objects will have resulted. These are all orbiting at around 800 kilometres,
which as your article points out is already the region of high density of
orbital debris.
Secondly, atmospheric drag does not ‘slow down’ satellites in low orbit,
it actually speeds them up.
Russell Ebest Edinburgh
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