00:04Up in space orbiting our planet, there is a veritable junk pile swirling around Earth.
00:09In fact, this is a map the European Space Agency has put together,
00:12showing all the bits of debris, including defunct satellites and the like, whizzing around the planet.
00:17Which is why Swiss space junk removal firm, ClearSpace,
00:20is going up there with their own device built to clear space junk and bring it back down to Earth.
00:25There's just one problem.
00:26Experts believe that the Vega Secondary Payload Adapter,
00:29which was supposed to be the target of a 2023 test of ClearSpace's device,
00:33has actually already been hit by some other space debris and could make its removal more dangerous.
00:38U.S. Space Defense Imaging has recently shown new objects orbiting near the adapter,
00:43a sign it was recently hit at high velocity.
00:45Objects in orbit travel at immense speeds.
00:48In fact, most satellites travel around our planet at around 7,000 miles per hour,
00:52though some can be traveling as fast as more than 17,000 miles per hour.
00:56And collisions in our upper atmosphere are becoming more common.
00:59Still, ClearSpace says they don't believe the new orbiting debris will pose any threat to their device.
01:04However, it does highlight just how necessary their work really is.
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