List of space debris producing events
Major contributors to space debris include the explosion of upper stages and satellite collisions.[1]
There were 190 known satellite breakups between 1961 and 2006.[2] By 2015, the total had grown to 250 on-orbit fragmentation events.[3]
There is estimated to be 500,000 pieces of debris in orbit as of 2012,[4] with 300,000 pieces below 2000 km (LEO).[1] Of the total, about 20,000 are tracked.[1] Also, about sixteen old Soviet nuclear space reactors are known to have released an estimated 100,000 liquid metal (NaK) droplets 800–900 km up,[5] which range in size from 1 – 6 cm.[5]
The greatest risk to space missions is from untracked debris between 1 and 10 cm in size.[1] Large pieces can be tracked and avoided, and impact from smaller pieces are usually survivable.[1]
| Top debris-making events circa 2012:[4] | |||||||
| What | Year | Pieces | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fengyun-1C | 2007 | 2,841 | ASAT | ||||
| Kosmos 2251 | 2009 | 1,267 | Collided with Iridium 33 | ||||
| STEP 2 Rocket Body | 1996 | 713 | Explosion | ||||
| Iridium 33 | 2009 | 521 | Collided with Kosmos 2251 | ||||
| Kosmos 2421 | 2008 | 509 | Disintegrated | ||||
| SPOT 1 Rocket Body | 1986 | 492 | Explosion | ||||
| OV2-1 Rocket Body | 1965 | 473 | Explosion | ||||
| Nimbus 4 Rocket Body | 1970 | 374 | Explosion | ||||
| TES Rocket Body | 2001 | 370 | Explosion | ||||
| CBERS 1 Rocket Body | 2000 | 343 | Explosion | ||||
| Fengyun-1C Debris | 2013 | Unknown | Collided with BLITS nano-satellite | ||||
Recent events
On 3 February 2015, the 13th DMSP satellite of the US government—DMSP-F13, launched in 1995—exploded while in a sun-synchronous polar orbit leaving a debris field of at least 43 objects. The US Air Force Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California is monitoring the expanding debris field, and "will issue conjunction warnings if necessary."[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Threat of Orbital Debris and Protecting NASA Space Assets from Satellite Collisions (2009)
- ↑ AN ANALYSIS OF RECENT MAJOR BREAKUPS IN THE LOW EARTH ORBIT REGION
- ↑ "ESA Experts Assess Risk from Exploded Satellite". http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Clean_Space/''. ESA. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stratrisks
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 IEEE – The Growing Threat of Space Debris
- ↑ Berger, Brian; Gruss, Mike (27 February 2015). "20-year-old Military Weather Satellite Apparently Exploded in Orbit". Space News. Retrieved 28 February 2015.