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The problem is the statistics.

_Your_ launch will be very unlikely to be hit by debris, but _one of_ the 86400 manned spaceflights per day will be hit. And now you've lost not only the 200 souls onboard but also a portion of the city that the suborbital spacecraft was on a trajectory towards as the punctured hull falls short of the landing pad.



If we were able to economically produce and sustain 86400 manned spaceflights per day cleaning space junk wouldn't be an issue.

The problem is the viability of technology we actually rely on nowadays: global positioning, weather prediction, surveillance and satellite communication. Space exploration is pretty low on the list of reasons people should worry about debris in orbit.


We have more airplane flights than that today, and nobody would have thought that possible in November 1903.


And? The issue is not what might or might not happen in 2139. Space debris could already potentially be a problem right now and the company this discussion is about has already been founded.




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