It's Past Time to Take Out Our (Space) Trash

On September 22, 2020, NASA and the U. S. Space Command announced that they were tracking an unidentified piece of space debris that appeared to be hurtling toward the International Space Station (ISS). It was predicted to pass by within only a few kilometers, dangerously too close to chance, at 5:21 p.m. CT. The astronauts boarded the Soyuz spacecraft "out of an abundance of caution," and NASA controllers fired thrusters to redirect the ISS out of the debris' trajectory. The object -- later ide...