On June 27, 1994, space junk threatened the construction of the space station.

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said in June 1994 that the "garbage" left by more than 30 years of human spaceflight activities in space will hinder manned spaceflight, and the proposed construction of the space station as a scientific research base cannot fail to take measures.

Space "junk" is the debris of failed satellites, multi-stage space rockets, and other debris, the largest of which can be observed from the ground is the size of a bus, and the smallest is the size of a softball, amounting to more than 7,000 pieces, and increasing at a rate of 2% to 5% per year.

Space "junk" is a long-standing problem. Generally speaking, the larger the size of the spacecraft and the longer it flies, the greater the risk. Compared with the space station that is stranded in space for a long time, the existing space shuttle in the United States is small and only flies for a few days or more days, but it has changed its flight posture four times to avoid "junk" debris.

Since then-President Ronald Reagan first announced the space station construction plan in 1984, the space station design has been revised several times, and the proposed space station will be about 40% larger than the original design.