Space Disaster

Basic Information

A Space Disaster refers to one of three related things:

1. A wreck, collision, crash, explosion or similar loss of a spaceship, rocket, satellite, or spacestation. That is to say a real-world tragedy akin to an Air Disaster or accident.
2. A natural disaster of a type that can only occur in space, or occurs on an interstellar scale. Like a supernova, for example. I mean, yeah, a supernova could totally cook the earth, but it's not really something you think of as an earthly disaster, and seems a little out of place on the list of disasters.
3. A disaster of a decidedly science-fiction bent, like an alien invasion. If aliens show up and attack us, the majority of the disaster will take place on earth not in space. Still, it's definitely a threat from space, and relevant to games and stories where the heroes travel around in space.

One way in which a space disaster may be different or worse than a more earthly disaster is that if your spaceship or spacesuit gets damaged by the disaster, you're likely to be facing the perils of space exposure

List of Space Disasters

• Alien Invasion
• Antimatter Cloud
• Atmospheric Reentry
• Avalanche Season On Mars
• Big Crunch
• Big Rip
• Black Hole
• Bolide
• Coronal Mass Ejection
• Death World
• Explosive Decompression
• Gamma Ray Burst
• Horde of Alien Locusts
• Kardashev Cusp
• Low-Mass X-Ray Binary
• Magnetar
• Meteor Impact
• Micrometeoroid
• Negative Space Wedgie
• Nemesis (star)
• Rogue Planet
• Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale
• Space Exposure
• Space Hurricane
• Star Found Shooting Water 'Bullets'
• Superbolide
• Supernova
• Temperature of Outer Space
• Unknown Phenomenon
• Von Neumann Probe

See also Interstellar Terrain (and maybe even the rps_hazard tag) for a longer list of navigational hazards you might encounter in space.

Sources

Bibliography

1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

• Any of links above could provide good thought-fodder for a science fiction RPG or novel. The moon is a harsh mistress, and the void between stars even more so.