Soviet satellite shattered. Collisions in space are increasingly frequent

While there is no shortage of space, the sky is becoming a crowded place. The 28 thousand satellites and 56 thousand other objects that orbit the Earth, weighing a total of 9,300 tons, increasingly risk colliding and increasing the number of space debris.

Traveling at 30 thousand kilometers per hour, these objects orbiting between 500 and 900 kilometers above sea level, whole or fragmented due to previous collisions, are real projectiles.

The disintegrated satellite

Since yesterday the danger has been even greater. An old Soviet-era weather satellite was in fact hit by debris, disintegrated and released thousands of other fragments, which could trigger a chain reaction.

If this were to exceed a certain limit - according to the most pessimistic estimates it could happen within a decade - there would be a risk of an uncontrolled reaction. It would be the Kessler syndrome, predicted in 1978, and would not leave a satellite intact.

Already today, one ton of space debris falls to Earth every day. Most incinerate due to atmospheric friction, but the US Federal Aviation Administration estimates that by 2035, objects falling from space could hit one person every two years.

Kessler syndrome

And to think that almost fifty years ago, when NASA scientist Donald Kessler made his prediction, the internet did not yet exist, nor Starlink's plan to launch 100 thousand satellites in the next few years (now the constellation has 11 thousand active).

Each Starlink satellite must perform approximately 40 emergency maneuvers per year to avoid colliding with debris. The fragments – at least the larger ones – are constantly tracked from the ground to anticipate and avoid collisions.

“Worrying trend”

Leolabs, the Californian company that monitors debris and yesterday reported the destruction of the Soviet satellite, wrote on X that "the trend is worrying." Last month, an old American spy satellite was destroyed. In August a Chinese rocket stage. In March, a Starlink satellite exploded.

In January a fragment hit the spacecraft docked at the Chinese space station. For safety, the capsule returned to earth without a crew.

The international space station, however, was forced to turn on its rockets and carry out an emergency maneuver at the beginning of the year. In fact, a fragment created by a historic collision was directed towards its trajectory, which still continues to threaten low orbit.

Space warfare trials

This is the space missile test carried out by China in 2007. The Fengyun 1C meteorological satellite was hit by a missile launched from the ground: a true feat from the point of view of national prestige.

The test was not just one of the first steps in the militarization of space. The destruction of Fengyun dotted the low orbit with 3 thousand fragments: 25% of all those present at the time. According to NASA it was the most serious debris formation event in history.

The new star wars worry the generals

by Nicolas Barotte