It was a sultry August weekend in 1988, but the participants at a specially convened conference in Washington, DC, weren’t hot under the collar about the weather. They were determined to take action against three serious threats to astronomy.
One problem was the amount of junk accumulating in orbit around the Earth: everything from defunct satellites to an astronaut’s glove. This space debris was a danger to new missions, including the Space Shuttle and the forthcoming International Space Station.
