Space junk harpooned like whale in orbit-cleanup test
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February 15, 2019
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A harpoon flung from a satellite has successfully captured a piece of pretend space junk, like a whale.
The British-led experiment is part of an effort to clean up debris in orbit, hundreds of miles above Earth.
The University of Surrey's Guglielmo Aglietti said Friday that the steel-tipped harpoon scored a bull's-eye last Friday. The harpoon — no bigger than a writing pen — pierced an aluminum panel the size of a table tennis racket attached to the end of a satellite boom. The distance was just 5 feet (1.5 meters), but researchers were delighted.
A video shows the...
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