The First Piece of Space Junk

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We haven't been catapulting things into orbit for our entire existence on earth. When did we start flinging stuff? There's a rather wonderful story that in the early 1950s a nuclear explosion in underground cavity which had what is often called a manhole cover on the top caused that manhole cover to jet off the earth and get into earth orbit. Many people say this is the first thing that actually made it into space properly. So really if we're looking at the first objects that got into earth orbit we have Sputnik 1 in 1957.

Gaze into the cosmos and wonder at broken satellites, retired rockets and shattered contraptions. Archaeologist Dr. Alice Gorman is a leading expert on orbital debris and chats about what’s up there, how it got there, and how to get it down. Strap in to hear about everything from Sputnik to sports cars, flaming garbage bonking us, alien clutter, collision potential, the most adorable space rubbish, cosmic burials and how one does this type of archeology without boarding a rocket. Also: steaming hot cruise ship gossip.

Follow Dr. Alice Gorman at Twitter.com/DrSpaceJunk

A donation went to Deadly Science: https://deadlyscience.org.au/

Dr. Gorman’s book: Dr. Space Junk vs. The Universe

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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Theme song by Nick Thorburn