# Do micro meteorites ever hit the shuttle?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-micro-meteorites-ever-hit-the-shuttle/433630>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 15, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-micro-meteorites-ever-hit-the-shuttle/433630 "2008-01-15T17:49:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-micro-meteorites-ever-hit-the-shuttle/433630/1 "2008-01-15T17:49:42Z")

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What prevents the shuttles and ISS from getting hit and having hull breaches? From what I understand the Earth gets hit by dozens of these a day and they all burn up. But in the vaccum of space even something the size of a grain of sand is lethal is it not? Every now and then you hear of stories of people finding pieces of meteorites that have made there way through and hit earth. Have we just goten lucky with the shuttle? I know its a small target but with the hours it spends up there i find it hard to beleive. Can we even track and see things that small?

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-micro-meteorites-ever-hit-the-shuttle/433630/2 "2008-01-15T17:53:09Z")

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Happens [all](http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1991/90JA02097.shtml) [the](http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060714_sts121_lateinspect.html) [time](http://www.universetoday.com/2007/08/16/sts-118-micrometeorite-dings-shuttle-windshield/). Most of the debris is too small to cause a measurable breach, though. Eventually, it will happen, with all the junk we have in LEO, but space is big.