Space Junk Archives

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Evan Gough

NASA Confirms that a Piece of its Battery Pack Smashed into a Florida Home

This is the pallet loaded with disused batteries that was jettisoned from the International Space Station with the station's robotic arm. HTV9 is the signature of the Japanese resupply craft that carried new batteries to the ISS. The same pallet used during delivery was used to discard the batteries. Image Credit: NASA

NASA is in the business of launching things into orbit. But what goes up must come down, and if whatever is coming down doesn’t burn up in the atmosphere, it will strike Earth somewhere.

Even Florida isn’t safe.

April 12, 2024April 12, 2024 by Evan Gough

Watch a Satellite Reaction Wheel Melt in a Simulated Orbital Re-Entry

This illustrations shows one of the ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicles burning up during re-entry. Heavier spacecraft components like satellite reaction wheels don't always burn up and constitute a hazard. ESA engineers are working to change that. Image Credit: ESA LICENCE ESA Standard Licence

Most satellites share the same fate at the end of their lives. Their orbits decay, and eventually, they plunge through the atmosphere toward Earth. Most satellites are destroyed during their rapid descent, but not always

Heavy pieces of the satellite, like reaction wheels, can survive and strike the Earth. Engineers are trying to change that.

February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 by Evan Gough

See the Dramatic Final Moments of the Doomed ERS-2 Satellite

The ESA's ERS-2 Earth observation satellite was destroyed when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere on February 21st 2004. Heavy parts of satellites like reaction wheels don't don't always burn up in the atmosphere and can pose a hazard. ESA engineers are working on reaction wheels that will break into pieces to reduce the hazard. Image Credit: Fraunhofer FHR

When a satellite reaches the end of its life, it has only two destinations. It can either be maneuvered into a graveyard orbit, a kind of purgatory for satellites, or it plunges to its destruction in Earth’s atmosphere. The ESA’s ERS-2 satellite took the latter option after 30 years in orbit.

February 1, 2024February 1, 2024 by Evan Gough

Space Junk is Going to be a Problem for Vera Rubin

Space junk could be a problem for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Even tiny chunks of debris could create streaks in its images. Image Credit: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/B. Quint

The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is different than other large telescopes, and that difference makes it more vulnerable to space junk. Other telescopes, like the Giant Magellan Telescope and the European Extremely Large Telescope, focus on distant objects. But the VRO’s job is to repeatedly image the entire available night sky for ten years, spotting transients and variable objects.

All that space junk can look like transient events, impairing the VRO’s vision and polluting its results.

December 6, 2023December 6, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

99% of Space Junk is Undetectable. That Could Change Soon

A map of space debris orbiting Earth. Credit: European Space Agency

Private and military organizations are tracking some of the 170 million pieces of space junk orbiting the planet, but they’re limited to how small an object they can detect. Only chunks larger than a softball can be tracked with radar or optical systems, and that only accounts for less than 1% of the junk out there.

But a new technique is being developed to resolve space junk to pieces smaller than one millimeter in diameter.

November 9, 2023November 9, 2023 by Evan Gough

ESA Plans to Eliminate New Space Debris by 2030

This image from the ESA's MASTER (Meteoroid and Space Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference) risk-assessment tool shows the dangerous debris orbiting Earth. Image Credit: IRAS/TU Braunschweig

What can we do about space junk? We know how much debris is in orbit, and we know the problem is getting worse. It’s our fault.

Our Earth now has a halo of orbital debris, and the ESA has a plan to stop contributing to the problem.

November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 by Mark Thompson

Oops. Astronauts Lost a Tool Bag During a Spacewalk!

NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (top) and Loral O’Hara (bottom) team up during their first spacewalk for maintenance on the outside of the space station. Credit: NASA TV — NASA Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (top) and Loral O'Hara (bottom)

I know for a fact it’s one of the most annoying things that can happen. I’ve done it lots; whether that be out at night with telescope or a bit of DIY but for sure it has to rate as one of the most frustrating things to happen. I am talking of dropping something you are using. Ranking high is dropping tools while you are actually using them.. Dropping a tool is one thing but imagine dropping an entire bag of tools, while in orbit!!!! Oops!

October 21, 2023October 21, 2023 by Evan Gough

A Russian Satellite Has Shifted Within 60 km of Another Spacecraft

Geostationary orbits are where telecommunication satellites and other monitoring satellites operate. This image shows one of the NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. Image Credit: NOAA.

When it comes to saber-rattling, few countries employ it as much as Russia does. During their ongoing invasion and occupation of Ukraine, the country’s leadership has repeatedly threatened to use atomic weapons. But the threats don’t stop there.

A private company called Slingshot Aerospace says Russia has maneuvered one of their Luch satellites uncomfortably close to Western spacecraft in GEO (geostationary orbit.)

And it’s not the first time.

October 17, 2023October 17, 2023 by Evan Gough

Spaceflight is Polluting the Atmosphere with Metal

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on the Artemis I flight test, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Humans can’t seem to interact with the environment at all without fouling it in some way. From plastic bags in the ocean’s deepest regions to soot on Himalayan glaciers, our waste is finding its way into Earth’s most difficult-to-reach places.

Now, we can add metals in the stratosphere to this ignominious list.

August 30, 2023August 30, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A Satellite Deployed a Drag Sail and Removed Itself from Orbit Five Years Early

The SBUDNIC satellite with its drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film, designed and built by students at Brown reentered Earth's atmosphere five years ahead of schedule. Image courtesy of Marco Cross.

In an age of increasing “stuff” orbiting Earth one big concern is what happens if one satellite hits another. The result could be an explosion, or a chain reaction of collisions, or the closure of an orbit. That would be catastrophic. However, a small satellite called SBUDNIC just sent itself back to Earth earlier than expected. It’s goal: to demonstrate a low-cost way to take care of space debris.