Related topics: space debris

Preparing for Sentinel-6's challenging early days

Teams at ESA's mission control centre are getting ready to ensure a new Sentinel Earth Observation mission safely arrives in its correct orbit, from where it will map, measure and monitor rising sea levels after its launch ...

The current state of space debris

Swirling fragments of past space endeavors are trapped in orbit around Earth, threatening our future in space. Over time, the number, mass and area of these debris objects grows steadily, boosting the risk to functioning ...

Solving the space junk problem

Space is getting crowded. Aging satellites and space debris crowd low-Earth orbit, and launching new satellites adds to the collision risk. The most effective way to solve the space junk problem, according to a new study, ...

The cost of space debris: In-space collisions increasingly likely

With hundreds of satellites launched every year, in-space collisions and the creation of fast-moving fragments of space debris—or 'space junk'—are becoming increasingly likely, threatening our continued human and technological ...

Mission control 'saves science'

Every minute, ESA's Earth observation satellites gather dozens of gigabytes of data about our planet—enough information to fill the pages on a 100-metre long bookshelf. Flying in low-Earth orbits, these spacecraft are continuously ...

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