00:03just a few hundred miles over our heads there are thousands of satellites whipping around the planet
00:08at thousands of miles per hour since the first one was launched back in the 60s they have absolutely
00:13changed our lives providing communications observations and other utility to humans
00:18however since russia blew one up with the first successful anti-satellite missile back in 2021
00:23not only endangering the lives of the astronauts on the iss and the chinese tiongong space station
00:29but also spreading a debris cloud high up into other layers of the planet's atmosphere experts
00:33now speculate that event could cascade into a domino effect of destruction in low earth orbit
00:39that's because the explosion from the destroyed satellite created 1500 pieces of trackable debris
00:4510 centimeters in size or larger and more debris which is smaller and not trackable according to
00:50nasa the satellite started at 186 miles above our planet but its resulting debris has now spread up
00:56to 683 miles with commander of u.s space command army general james dickinson saying when it happened
01:02quote the debris created by russia's test will continue to pose a threat to activities in outer
01:07space for years to come putting satellites and space missions at risk as well as forcing more collision
01:12avoidance maneuvers now researchers say the clock is ticking and that it's likely that this debris will
01:17eventually collide with another orbiting object resulting in more debris and more collisions something which
01:23could make low earth orbit a minefield of debris and unusable in just forty years
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