ADRIFT TRANSCRIPT:
VANGUARD
My name is Vanguard. My body is an aluminium sphere, 16.5 centimeters in diameter and I weigh 1.47 kilograms. In 1958 I was the first solar powered satellite to be launched into outer space. I had value. I served a purpose. And now, I drift aimlessly in perpetual orbit. Since my retirement, I have become a piece of space junk. The oldest human artefact circling the Earth. I do not travel alone. Millions of other pieces of junk orbit with me. Rocket parts, fuel tanks, batteries, dead satellites. Before we became junk we each had a use. But now, we've become a threat.
Title: ADRIFT
PIERS (01:11)
Guys, I've got to tell you, I think my spatula's escaped.
NASA (01:23)
Once we get in, depressurise that outer portion, pop open the internal hatch, it's time for Piers to slide outside. That's Piers' feet near the center of the screen.
Piers
Do you want your palette or your spatch cleaning off, Mike?
MIKE
Yeah, I do need it
Piers
Okay, I'll take care of it.
Piers (CONT'D)
Guys?
PIERS (CONT'D)
Is it caught on me anywhere?
MIKE
No, it's not on those hooks.
Piers
It was tethered to me.
PIERS (CONT'D)
I don't see it on me.
NASA
We did actually lose a spatula somewhere along the way. It accidentally got lost.
Title: CHILE - Astronomy Capital of the World.
CHILE WOMEN
What did he feel? When he lost an object like this one,
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
knowing it would keep orbiting
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
like the hundreds and thousands of objects
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
that orbit the planet as part of the space debris.
VANGUARD (02:46)
This spatula, like all space junk travelled at 17,500 miles per hour. Eventually, it burned up in Earths atmosphere.
PIERS
You know after we learnt of its loss, we mourned it. Because this spatula was really trying to get away. And she got away. Clean. And then went off to become a satellite of her own. And space debris.
CHILE WOMEN
There's a lack of awareness.
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
There is little discussion about it. It's like the 'dark courtyard' of our atmosphere
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
this aspect of space junk.
NASA (03:44)
The day from the International Space Station this morning is the scene of cautionary vigilance, as Flight Director Chris Edelen and his Orbit One team of flight controllers, monitor the approach of a small chunk of space debris in the vicinity of the station, that prompted the precautionary sheltering of the six crew members in their respective Soyuz spacecraft.
Piers (04:10)
Space debris, as an operating astronaut, it was just the enemy.
PIERS (CONT'D)
Everything between this, and teeny weeny weeny. We can't see it. We don't know where it is. So, it's a sleet. A sleet of very fast moving stuff with closing speeds of one to two miles per second.
NASA (04:34)
A piece of space debris is just twenty minutes and forty-five seconds away
NASA (04:42) (CONT'D)
Flight controllers standing by, here at Mission Control, just thirty seconds to go until the time of closest approach.
NASA (04:49) (CONT'D)
One second
NASA (05:08) (CONT'D)
The green light has been given for the crew to back out of their sheltering procedures, with the piece of cosmos satellite debris having come and gone, with no threat to the International Space Station.
NASA (05:22) (CONT'D)
For our colleagues, have a nice weekend. This is Mission Control, Houston.
Piers
So we play the odds - the big sky theory - that stuff that we can't see, will miss us. So far, you know, we've been lucky.
VANGUARD (05:39)
It's getting crowded up here. Some of us have already collided with, and destroyed working satellites. One more collision could create a cascade, creating more debris, followed by more collisions. Our destructive power might eliminate current satellites altogether. Future space exploration may also become, impossible.
VANGUARD (06:10) (CONT'D)
Every orbital launch generates rocket parts as debris, as mine once did. Some pieces remain orbiting forever. Some burn up. Some land unpredictably on Earth. Some, they say, are guided safely into the ocean.
THAI MAN (06:45)
Oh! Oh! Is it fire?
Title: BANGKOK, THAILAND
THAI MAN (CONT'D)
Is something being burned?
Vanguard (07:46)
This is some of the debris currently orbiting planet Earth. We are a floating graveyard. Apparently people believe that harpoons, magnets or nets could catch us and limit the future damage we threaten to cause. But right now there is no viable means to bring us back to Earth. To bring us home.
PIERS (08:12)
I think that the business of dealing with the unknown is what attracts a lot of people to science, a lot of people to astronautics.
CHILE WOMEN (08:20)
A few days ago some elderly people came for a visit,
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
And one of them asked me
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
if it was normal to cry when you look up at the sky.
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
She said she was overcome by a deep feeling,
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
that sense of being overwhelmed.
Piers (08:52)
I was hanging out of the truss by one hand for a while...
Piers (CONT'D)
It was night, and suddenly I saw the sun come up on the horizon ahead of me,
PIERS (CONT'D)
my feet hanging over the Earth
PIERS (CONT'D)
I watched the dawn come up over the planet
PIERS (CONT'D)
and just come in a line straight underneath me,
PIERS (CONT'D)
and then the sun came up and hit me in the face.
PIERS (CONT'D)
It's honestly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
PIERS (CONT'D)
It's just like you're standing in space, you know...
PIERS (CONT'D)
naked or sitting in shorts or something
PIERS (CONT'D)
and you're totally in the environment.
Piers (CONT'D)
You become very aware of how huge the planet is below you
PIERS (CONT'D)
and how beautiful it is.
PIERS (09:33) (CONT'D)
Vanguard was America's first satellite in space. And there she is, still up there, with her little whip end antenna's waggling, not in the wind, but in the vacuumn of space, going around and around and around. Quiet now, nothing happening, but perfectly preserved as far as we know.
PIERS (09:53) (CONT'D)
So one day somebody will go out there with a butterfly net. And snag her.
CHILE WOMEN (10:02)
One can have feelings of excitement as well as sadness and mystery,
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
and unease about the uncertainty.
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
I don't know...
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
we might have to face pieces of debris falling upon us
CHILE WOMEN (CONT'D)
or maybe not. They may remain up there orbiting forever.
END.