ESA report warns of space debris and overcrowded orbit

More and more satellites are orbiting the Earth – to the displeasure of experts: the European Space Agency (ESA) warns of more and more satellites and more and more space debris in orbit.

As the number of satellites increases, so does the amount of space debris in orbit, writes the ESA in its latest Space Environment Report, which has been published annually since 2017. However, the Earth's orbit is a limited resource.

More satellites are now being launched into space than are coming back down. This is also due to the mega-constellations for satellite internet, such as Starlink. In particularly frequented areas, the density of active objects has now reached the same order of magnitude as space debris. In addition, too many satellites are not lowered at the end of their mission or transferred to a graveyard orbit, but remain in orbit even though they are no longer in use.

Overcrowded orbits

Some orbits are now overcrowded, increasing the risk of collisions, the ESA complains. However, the risk increases with every collision, as the number of debris increases.

This is not a theory: in 2024, there were several large and many smaller fragmentation events, the ESA announced. Together, these would have caused "thousands of new debris objects". However, these events are not always due to collisions – Fragmentations without collisions were the main cause of the creation of space debris in 2024, according to ESA.

"There is a scientific consensus that the amount of space debris would continue to increase even without additional launches, because fragmentation events add new debris objects faster than debris can naturally re-enter the atmosphere", the authors write in the report.

Space debris should be removed

It is therefore not enough to prevent new debris from being created: Space debris must be removed. The report has good news here: more rocket parts and satellites burned up in 2024 than in previous years. Around 90 percent of rockets in low-Earth orbits will leave them within 25 years in accordance with the re-entry standards that applied before 2023. "Around 80 percent also meet the new, stricter standard of leaving orbit within five years", the ESA said.

Various programs that monitor the orbit observe around 40,000 objects. Of these, around 11,000 are active satellites. The actual number is likely to be significantly higher: According to ESA estimates, there are around 54,000 objects in Earth orbit with a diameter of more than 10 centimeters and 1.2 million between 1 and 10 centimeters.

The number of pieces between 1 millimeter and 1 centimeter is said to be around 130 million. Even these can cause considerable damage to other satellites, the International Space Station (ISS) or one of the space telescopes.

(wpl)