Illustration of an unmanned spacecraft using a tethered net to catch and remove space junk from Earth's orbit. This debris can consist of anything from the remnants of unsuccessful launches to inactive satellites and loose equipment that has strayed from orbiting spacecrafts. Even small objects have the potential to cause harm or destruction to other assets, such as satellites and spacecrafts, as both are moving at incredibly high speeds (over 25,000 kilometers per hour in low-Earth orbit). Every collision adds more debris to a growing shell enveloping the planet, heightening the danger to all space vehicles.