Satellite & Space Missions

New Satellite Technologies For Cleaner Low Orbits

Space debris is also known as orbital debris which is the collection of defunct objects in orbit around Earth. This includes spent rocket stages, old satellites and fragments from disintegration, erosion and collisions. Since orbits overlap with new spacecraft, debris may collide with operational spacecraft. There are more than 12000 track able items of space debris larger than 10 cm orbiting Earth, including derelict satellites, spent upper stages and fragments of old missions – all presenting a clear and present danger to current missions. Mitigation requirements also ban space systems from undergoing uncontrolled re-entry if the associated ground casualty expectancy exceeds 0.0001 per event. For such cases a controlled re-entry over unpopulated areas is mandated instead.