Editing Delta II (section)

== Space debris (a.k.a. "Space junk") ==
The only person on record ever hit by [[space debris]], Mrs. Lottie Williams, was hit by a small, light piece of a Delta II rocket. Mrs. Williams was exercising in a park in [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]] on 22 January 1997 when she was hit in the shoulder by a {{convert|6|in|cm|adj=on|order=flip|sp=us}} piece of blackened metallic material. The [[United States Space Command|U.S. Space Command]] confirmed that a used Delta II rocket from the April 1996 launch of the [[Midcourse Space Experiment]] had crashed into the [[atmosphere]] 30 minutes earlier. The object tapped her on the shoulder and fell off harmlessly onto the ground. Williams collected the item and [[NASA]] tests later showed that the fragment was consistent with the materials of the [[rocket]], and Nicholas Johnson, the agency's chief scientist for [[orbital debris]], believes that she was, indeed hit by a piece of a recently launched Delta II.<ref>{{cite news |title=Space Junk Survivor |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98700&page=1 |access-date=2 January 2018 |date=3 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103072647/http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98700&page=1 |archive-date=3 January 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Long |first1=Tony |title=January 22, 1997: Heads Up, Lottie! It's Space Junk! |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/01/jan-22-1997-heads-up-lottie-its-space-junk/ |access-date=2 January 2018 |date=22 January 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102224533/https://www.wired.com/2009/01/jan-22-1997-heads-up-lottie-its-space-junk/ |archive-date=2 January 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Delta rockets have been involved in multiple fragmentation events as they were routinely left in orbit with enough fuel to explode. A large amount of current "[[Space debris|space junk]]" is Delta rocket debris.<ref>{{cite web |title=Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD) |date=14 June 2016 |url=https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/site_tour/remote_hypervelocity_test_laboratory/micrometeoroid_and_orbital_debris.html |access-date=20 March 2023}}</ref>