More than 50 pieces of debris remain in space after India destroyed its own satellite in March

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

More than four months after India destroyed one of its own satellites in space, dozens of pieces of debris from the cataclysmic event still circulate in orbit, posing a small but potential threat to other functioning spacecraft that might pass close by. It’s possible that some of this debris could stay in orbit for a full year before falling back down to Earth, according to space trackers.
On March 27th, India fired a ground-based missile at a test satellite the country had launched in January, demonstrating the capability to take out a spacecraft in Earth orbit. Destroying an orbiting satellite is no easy feat, as these vehicles are relatively small and zoom above our planet at thousands of miles per hour. Hitting one directly with a…

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