It was put in place to help protect the space shuttle from bird strike damage.

VOA: special.2009.04.01

She expresses concern that people traveling in space might someday damage the spaceflight objects.

VOA: special.2010.03.02

"They are all hurtling around in space at 36,000 kilometers per hour and so even a 1mm piece of space junk can destroy or damage a satellite because it all comes from either dead satellites, satellites which have broken up, satellites which had fuel left in them and exploded."

VOA: standard.2010.07.24

The concept of segmentation should be included to provide damage control when a trustworthy space is breached.

FORBES: New Cybersecurity Focus For Federal R&D Group

Selling a big chunk of your wares through Wal-Mart's enormous distribution system can be a boon if the company likes what you have, but it also has the market power to inflict a lot of damage by shifting your shelf space or dropping you altogether.

FORBES: Magazine Article

All of it is travelling at several kilometres per second - sufficient velocity for even the smallest fragment to do a lot of damage if it strikes an operational space mission.

BBC: UK design to 'harpoon' old satellites