Typically, space junk reenters at around seven kilometres per second and can reach temperatures of 1,600°C as it tears through the atmosphere. Titanium alloys have a melting point of around 1,700°C.

Kosmos 482, a Soviet-era spacecraft shrouded in Cold War secrecy, will reenter the Earth's atmosphere in the next few days after misfiring on a journey to Venus more than 50 years ago.

NASA is investigating whether falsely certified titanium could cause a “catastrophic failure” of a mechanical support component in its $450 million Kepler space photometer, a planet-finding ...