Back in January, China fired a missile at one of its own weather satellites orbiting at around 520 miles overhead. The missile smashed the satellite to bits.

The test jolted the Pentagon and many of China’s neighbors. It showed that China has missile guidance systems able to essentially hit a speeding bullet (actually a satellite travels 10 times faster than the fastest bullet) at great distance.

The story doesn’t end there. The test littered the heavens with scraps of metal, even more than initially estimated. Read my recent story about the, er, fallout of this test.

Imagine taking a space walk out of the International Space Station, above, knowing that at any second a loose shard of metal might slam into you at 17,400 mph. Even a tiny orbiting fleck of aluminum has the kinetic energy of a bullet, one scientist told me.