U.S. Air Force doctrine on space operations is elaborated in a new publication. See “Space Operations” (pdf), Air Force Doctrine Document AFDD 2-2, November 27, 2006.
The threat posed by debris in Earth orbit is the subject of a recent Master’s Thesis, which provides a convenient introduction to the subject and a review of recent literature. See “Orbital Debris: Technical and Legal Issues and Solutions” (pdf) by Michael W. Taylor, Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University, Montreal, August 2006.
Nice post, i was recently reading about a shuttle mission that had to be but short because a chip of paint orbiting earth that was the size of a speck of sand hit the windshield of the space shuttle and cracked it… amazing, you’d think with all that garbage up there they would organize some kind of clean up.