Human Creation: Garbage in Space

European Space Agency recently released images of all satellites and other stuff such as garbage, and explosion particles floating uncontrollably in orbit. Since lunch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 until 1 January 2008:

approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.

Today via ESA:

Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational – roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).