A group of astronauts are trapped in orbit around the Earth after their space ship suffers catastrophic damage. A rescue ship is available to bring them home, but there is a catch. It has only four seats ― and there are seven of them.

In early October, a dead Soviet satellite and the abandoned upper stage of a Chinese rocket narrowly avoided a collision in low Earth orbit. If the objects had crashed, the impact would have blown them to bits and created thousands of new pieces of dangerous space debris.