http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/orbital_debris_050202.html
"As dump-sites go, there’s nothing quite like Earth orbit: Totally gone or near-dead spacecraft, spent motor casings and rocket stages, all the way down to pieces of solid propellant, insulation, and paint flakes. Toss in for good measure thousands of frozen bits of still-radioactive nuclear reactor coolant dribbling from a number of aged Russian radar satellites."
"There were 9,233 objects large enough to be tracked and catalogued by the USSTRATCOM Space Surveillance Network. Of this total there were 2,927 payloads, along with 6,306 object classed as rocket bodies and debris."
PLANETES was an awesome show.
hi
> frozen bits of still-radioactive nuclear reactor coolant
I suspect that in orbit, the fact that they're radioactive would be the least of your worries.
Except that sometimes they de-orbit and don't always burn fully before hitting the ground...
Well, that wouldn't be a very nice to have drop in your back yard. Good thing it's likely to hit the ocean!
From the article:
"Last year, for instance, a titanium rocket-motor casing weighing roughly 155 pounds (70 kilograms) was found near San Roque in Argentina. It was identified as debris from a third stage of an American Delta 2 booster that had been orbiting since October 1993.
Similarly, in July a metal pressure sphere and metal fragment fell into Brazil, the likely debris from a second stage of a Delta 2 booster that hurled the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, toward the red planet a year earlier. "