Firstly, has a man-made satellite, or indeed any spacecraft, ever collided with space debris and been destroyed? What are the chances of this happening? (I imagine very slim, but how slim?) And do we check that there is no space debris where we are going to send our spacecraft before we launch it?
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$\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of How much of a problem is space junk, and how can we clean it up?, Collision with space junk - Where is it safe? Where is it most dangerous?, Criticality in space junk, How bad is Kessler Syndrome?, Why haven't more spacecraft/satellites been hit by debris?,... and many other questions tagged under debris $\endgroup$– TildalWaveMay 28, 2015 at 21:41
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$\begingroup$ Info only: (1) A shuttle received a pit in a window from space debris. I understand that subsequent analysis indicated it was a paint chip. (2) Not what you had in mind, but Columbia was destroyed on re-entry as a result of a collision during launch with material falling off (AFAIR) the external tank of one of the boosters. $\endgroup$– Russell McMahonMay 30, 2015 at 16:43
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The answer is yes, in 2009 an Iridium satellite was destroyed in a collision with a old Russian one.
See the NASA page on the problem.
