Apparently Calgary was nearly hit by a piece of rocket debris the size of a pickup truck yesterday. The province was within seconds of issuing a public warning notice when the debris deflected off the earth's atmosphere and changed its trajectory, ending up in the Atlantic Ocean. That's quite a discrepancy, but it sounds like the threat was pretty real for a bit.
From the Calgary Herald:
"A piece of space junk the size of a pickup truck hurtling toward Calgary changed course in the nick of time, saving the city from disaster Friday."
"Officials scrambled to organize for the worst-case scenario. If the object had struck in a residential area, "it probably would have been significant loss of life," Lloyd said."
http://www.calgaryherald.com/enterta...211/story.html
That's kind of scary stuff. It sounds like humanity's littering habits have hit critical mass out in space too, what with this and the two satellites colliding recently.
All hail our new space junk overlords.