Unit 7 Section 1 Listening 2 and 3

There are tens of thousands of man-made objects in orbit around the Earth. Many of them are useful things, like space stations and weather satellites. However, people have left lots of unwanted objects in space too, such as parts of old rockets. These objects are known as space junk.

Since the 1950s, people have sent over 10,000 satellites into space. Many of these satellites have stopped working, but they are still in orbit because it is too expensive to bring them back to the Earth. Astronauts have also dropped things during their spacewalks, such as cameras, gloves and tool bags.These objects continue to orbit the Earth as space junk.

Space junk is a big problem, and it is getting worse. Every year, we send more and more things into orbit, and this means more and more space junk in orbit too. Most pieces of space junk are very small, but they can still be very dangerous. Objects in orbit, such as satellites and spacecrafts, are travelling very, very fast. This means a small piece of space junk can destroy a spacecraft or satellite. When this happens, the spacecraft or satellite is broken up into hundreds of pieces, and there will be even more space junk in orbit.

Scientists are very worried about space junk because it can make space missions very dangerous. If there is too much space junk in orbit, it will become impossible to travel into space. Countries around the world need to work together to solve this difficult problem.