The first mission to Mars has landed, only to find out, it has lost all communication with ground control and Earth. Someone or something, has destroyed two satellites in low Earth orbit. The International Space Station makes an emergency maneuver to protect it from the rapidly expanding debris field that could destroy it. In what's called the Kessler Effect, other satellites are being destroyed due to a cascading effect compounded by the existing space junk, disrupting all space related communication. As a result, life on Earth is effectively returned to the 1800’s.