Image: European Space Agency
What’s New: Europe’s concern about the increasing amount of dangerous debris in space threating Galileo, GPS and other satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO).
What to Know:
- There are MILLIONS, maybe tens of millions, of pieces of debris in orbit around the Earth.
- Only a small fraction can be tracked.
- Most of the debris is in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), but 19% is in MEO. That is still A LOT of debris.
- In 2021 a Galileo satellite in MEO had to be maneuvered to avoid a piece of debris from 1989.
- We asked the US Dept of Defense if GPS satellites have ever had to avoid debris, but they never responded.
- Debris has damaged the space shuttle and International Space Station.
- Tens of thousands of new LEO satellites are expected to be launched in the next ten years.
- Debris striking a satellite or other debris creates even more debris which can destroy even more satellites. Such a cascade is called the Kessler Syndrome. It could make LEO unusable.
- A Kessler event could make it unsafe or impossible to even pass through LEO to get to MEO or GEO (geosynchronous orbit). Space would no longer be accessible.
What it Means: Essential services, like GPS, should have terrestrial compliments to supplement them or take over if necessary. Note – See definition of “essential.”
Galileo Program Watching Closely as Space Junk Mounts
