READER COMMENTS

Honestly, I think that the implications of China testing a weapon which would only have military significance in conflicts with a handful of nations, primarily the US, frightens me a lot more than the idea of relatively small pieces of space pollution coming into the atmosphere as their orbits decay. That being said, I echo the point about not defecating where you eat, in this case Earth.

The "falling back" part is not as significant as the "speeding around" since reentry burns most of the junk up.

Although some bits, like the nuclear power cells, are a concern if they come back to earth, the real problem is that space-junk picks up pretty amazing speeds that can exceed many thousands of miles per hour.

At those speeds, even little paint flecks can do considerable damage to other satellites, and things like nuts and bolts can kill a satellite.
We may reach a point where there is a chain reaction of junk killing a satellite generating more junk, killing more satellites, and so on.

Russia and the US have both carried out tests on killing satellites, China is just checking off another box in the “me-too” list of things to do.

Although I agree with most of what you say, I don't know if I agree with your checklist analogy. By that logic I guess I should be comfortable with North Korea's possesion of nuclear weapons since joining the group of nuclear powers is just one of North Korea's "things to do".

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