Dead satellite may pose threat to spacecraft for 150 years

An enormous Earth-observing satellite that was officially declared dead in space Wednesday may stay in orbit for the next 150 years, posing a threat to other spacecraft zipping around our planet. The $2.9 billion Envisat spacecraft, which is about the size of a school bus, went mysteriously silent about a month ago after 10 successful years of studying our planet from orbit. The European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday that it had given up hope of recovering the satellite, which died a year before its planned 2013 decommissioning. More

(Source: MSNBC - May 13)