Year after year, humanity is setting new records for the amount of stuff we're sending into the Earth's orbit, spurred mostly ...

(Credit: NASA) According to the European Space Agency (ESA), more than 170 million pieces of space junk are currently orbiting Earth. But what is that debris exactly, and how did it get there?

Space junk is a major threat with millions of debris pieces now in orbit. Risks range from minor collisions reducing the working life of satellites to the complete loss of life in a crewed spacecraft.

Space junk has been a concern for a while ... Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander carried 151 Moon Boxes into space last year, as well as the ashes of dozens of some 70 people.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.--The moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater that could fit several semitractor-trailers. The leftover rocket will smash ...