space junk n.

man-made debris floating in space

Now frequently used in non-SF contexts.

  • 1951 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 30 Sept. (Comics section) 50 (caption)

    Saturn…is, of course, noted for the ring of meteors, and space-junk around it.

  • 1987 R. McCammon Swan Song i. i. 7

    NASA’s trying to repair SKY EYEs 2 and 3, but the others are space junk.

  • 1991 E. Arnason Woman of Iron People (1992) i. iv. 143

    Small planets didn’t have moons. Of if they did, the moons were tiny: pieces of captured space junk.

  • 2008 F. Aguirre Auctioneer & the Antiquarian in Asimov’s Science Fiction June 74 page image Lyle G. Boyd bibliography

    You're going to need it when your Martians finally get fed up with all the space junk we're throwing at them.

Research requirements

antedating 1951
Research History

Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.