A mug friend informs me/reminds me homo saps are already crapping up space. Does what we send "up there" to get info "live" forever?

Your correspondent is right, and it is becoming a serious problem.

The volume of Space around the Earth is becoming cluttered ever more with satellites, rocket parts etc.

When satellites expire or are turned off they stay in orbit for a long time afterwards, endangering other spacecraft despite the enormous amount of room up there.

Arguably they present a hazard down here when eventually they fall out of orbit. Fortunately they usually burn up and disintegrate into dust high in the atmosphere when they come spiralling out of orbit. They don't drop vertically but in a declining orbit like the string round a yo-yo, until slow enough for their path to become more vertical. Fortunately too, there is a plenty of the planet's surface onto which bits can fall without hitting anyone, starting with the two-thirds of it covered by the seas.

The astronomers are very unhappy about it too, because although the do have a few instruments out there, most of the ever-increasing mist of metalwork is starting to interfere with observations.