The Moon's growing junkyard - and the threat it could pose to future missions

Pallab GhoshScience correspondent Artist impression issued by European Space Agency of space debris in low Earth orbit Today's crash means the Moon now has roughly 3,000 human-made objects, weighing around 190 tonnes combined. These have built up since the Soviet Union's Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in September 1959. NASA's own tally lists 796 items from its Moon programme alone, mostly left behind by the six Apollo missions; the wider 3,000 figure emerges once