The collision couldn’t have occurred with greater accuracy.

Three hours before, a dead spy satellite was struck by a meteor. It was not destroyed but its tracked path shifted slightly. This event went undetected.

The supply ship Kosma was heading for the 2 year old Korolev Base near the lunar south pole. The base awaited its monthly resupply.

Kosma and the oversized satellite made the best of their brief but violent meeting. The plume of freshly minted space junk spread rapidly. The next losses were three nearby communications satellites. These exploded into junk plumes of their own. The International Space Station lasted just ten hours before augmenting the expanding blizzard of orbiting debris.

All craft around the Earth were destroyed within a week.

On the moon, one of the 25 Earthings resident, Sergi Niko asked the computer when space junk orbital decay would clear enough space around the Earth to permit a rescue mission.

‘A safe rescue will be viable in 50,000 years’, it responded crisply.