How much debris is there in space? Currently, there are about 2,000 active satellites orbiting Earth, but there are also 3,000 dead ones.

According to NASA, there are more than 27,000 pieces of space debris bigger than the size of a softball currently orbiting Earth.

Preventing pieces of space debris from crashing into each other is a problem engineers have been grappling with for decades.

A drag sail that a team at Purdue University developed to pull launch vehicles in space back to Earth is scheduled to undergo a test launch