Space Pollution

'Space Junk'

News:

Space Junk on the Rise (2009)

• https://www.space.com/6625-space-junk-earth-rise-experts.html

European Space Agency

• https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/The_current_state_of_space_debris

Space junk map tracks 200 ‘ticking time bombs’

• https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-56845104

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Pollution in Orbit

• http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3438/1

There are more than 500,000 tracked objects larger than a marble, and millions of smaller untrackable objects orbiting the Earth at speeds of up to 28,000 kilometers per hour. The US government’s Space Surveillance Network (SSN) uses approximately 30 sensors around the world to track and catalogue the positions and velocities of more than 16,000 of these objects orbiting the Earth. The tracking system registers objects as small as five centimeters in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and as large as one meter in geosynchronous orbit.

More (... and the risks are accelerating... ):

Wikipedia | Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution,[1] space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris[2]) are defunct human-made objects in space – principally in Earth orbit

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris

Space Junk View

• https://spacejunkview.com/

What's to be done with the debris?

31,501 tracked objects (as of 2026)

16,042 active satellites

2,789 dead satellites

2,184 pieces of rocket bodies

10,224 asst. pieces of debris

Orbital Radar

• https://orbitalradar.com/space-debris-map
• https://orbitalradar.com/space-debris-tracking

Starlink -- https://starlink.com/ --

SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As of June 2026, the network consisted of approximately 10,413 satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with user terminals and gateway ground stations...

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