Maybe Nasa ought to invent some intergalactic wheelie bins.

Because everything from rubbish sacks and toothbrushes to old satellites and golf balls are floating around space after being lost or dumped.

Yesterday we told how space-walker Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper accidentally let go of her tool bag and had to watch helplessly as it floated away.

Now it is one of millions of pieces of junk floating around in space - 12,500 of which are big enough to be tracked by America's Space Surveillance Network.

Most of the junk is made up of obsolete satellites and rocket parts, but there are also rubbish bags dumped from the Mir space station.

As space debris can reach speeds of 22,000 miles an hour, even the tiniest fragment could prove disastrous if it hit a manned spacecraft. At speeds like this, even a tiny fleck of paint is capable of boring a quarter-inch hole into a space station window.

It has resulted in Nasa replacing 80 space shuttle windows because of space junk impact.

The threat of collisions increases every day, says Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's space debris office.

He says: "There's a risk of these objects hitting our own craft.

"The International Space Station had to perform an emergency evasive manoeuvre in August this year to avoid a fragment of an exploded Russian Cosmos 1421 satellite." Fortunately, there are not believed to be any people or animals lost in space.

Laika the dog was launched into orbit on Sputnik 2 in 1957 - but recent evidence suggests she died from overheating and panic shortly after launch.

Her body would have been cremated when her craft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Some of the millions of pieces of space junk burn up harmlessly as they hit the our atmosphere but some get through.

Heiner says: "You have some large objects up there including satellites of more than 10 metres.

"The items that survive re-entry are usually stainless steel or titanium fuel tanks which have been recorded coming down in America and South Africa."

In 2001, the obsolete 135 tonne Mir space station plunged into the Pacific Ocean under the control of scientists who guided it down.

That was a more successful operation than the return to Earth of the 77 tonne Skylab space station, which had been floating in space for five years after being abandoned by its crew.

It plummeted to Earth in 1979, scattering debris across the Australian outback - just two days after Nasa predicted it would come down on Cornwall.

But don't worry about space junk hitting you - bookies say the odds are at least 20 billion to one.


The outer section of the Sputnik first stage rocket was the very first piece of junk to be dumped into orbit after it was launched in 1957.


Around 22 items of rubbish a year used to be released by the Mir Space Station - but the new International Space Station releases just four.

The latest junk to be jettisoned was a cooling unit the size of a fridge weighing 80kg. Heiner Klinkrad, of the European Space Agency, says: "This stuff is jettisoned by an astronaut. They follow strict procedures to ensure it is not ejected in the wrong direction or at the wrong speed."


Items recorded as lost in space by astronauts include a wrench, nuts and bolts, cleaning cloths, sealant guns, a camera, screwdriver and robotic arm.


More than half of the 6,000 satellites launched into space are still in orbit - but only 700 are operational.

The rest are floating uncontrollably and must be avoided by spacecraft and stations as a collision would be lethal.

The second US satellite, Vanguard I, which was launched in 1958 and used for six years is still in orbit.


Several astronauts have lost gloves, most notably Gemini 4's Edward White (right) during the first American space walk in 1965.


Thousands of very thin copper wires were released into orbit in the early 60s by the Midas satellites.

The idea was to build a metallic layer around the Earth to bounce back radiowaves and allow better telecoms.

But it was a disaster. The wires got clustered and now float about uselessly.


Russian astronaut Michail Tjurin hit a golf ball into space from the International Space Station as part of a commercial for Canadian sports company Element 21 two years ago.


There have been more than 200 recorded explosions and six collisions in our atmosphere since records began. Most of the explosions are caused by parts of rockets still laden with fuel that later ignite.


In the 80s the Soviets dumped 60 nuclear reactor cores previously used in military satellites. The biggest problem they left behind was leaking reactor coolant - liquid metal - which still orbits Earth with the cores.

Not lost in space

Your ashes can be fired into space for about £500 - but the canisters don't stay up there for long. The ashes of Star Trek's James Doohan, who played Scottie (left), were found in New Mexico last May after being shot up three weeks earlier.