re: It's elevating
Very good, Del!
Indeed, what about all the debris in orbit! One hit (by a large chunk), and....gone.
SF authors have sometimes a lot of imagination, but reality is quite different!
Many novels involve villains bringing bad things (for the plot) or even Extra-terrestrial beings can be the villains in the story.
But the short manned spacecraft history shows that you don't need villains to create a SF story with a cliffhanging or dramatic plot.
Raoul