SPACE is FULL!

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times (via SlashDot) about the 10,000 wee items orbiting earth now. China’s test of an anti-satellite system earlier this year added 800 particles immediately, and through more collisions, will end up adding another 1000 objects.
What’s the problem? It’s now harder than ever to fly into orbit. NASA and anyone else planning a mission must track all these objects and plan their flight to avoid them. This is getting harder and harder – and it’s getting exponentially worse as the objects collide with each-other and break up.
If this keeps up, we’ll end up trapped on earth! We’ll have to invent some sort of huge space vacuum to clean up Low Earth Orbit!