Why do you characterize these stories as a "panic"..? Do you think the debris is nonexistent, or its hazard exaggerated, or..?

As for the "curious resemblance," CDI has been talking about space debris for years, and seems to have hung its response on the peg of the WashTimes story -- a routine PR exercise.

"Panic" like a UFO "flap". Every so often, these stories bubble up in the news and the matter gets treated like it's a new and suddenly urgent problem. In reality, the problem has been known about and accommodated for years, and there are ongoing efforts among space-capable countries to adopt design and operations practices aimed at reducing the creation of new debris.

In other words, a straw man. "In reality" (to use your condescending phrase) the two long articles both describe those ongoing efforts. Neither claims the problem has recently become much more threatening. No panic, and by most people's stanbards hardly a "flap," either.

In short, what we have here is the stunning revelation that people at space weblogs think about space stuff all the time, while the general press covers it occasionally. I'm shocked -- shocked, I tell you.

And you continue to miss my point, which is that every so often the topic bubbles up, there is a bit of breathless attention, and then it goes away -- like a "flap".

As for being condescending, I don't see any condescension in these comments but yours.