Astroscale launches space debris removal mission

Satellite technology has come a long way since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, its simple, hypnotic radio signal belying the monumental changes it would herald. In the intervening years, Earth’s inhabitants have come to rely on satellites for everything from TV broadcasting and GPS to weather forecasting and monitoring climate change.

Naturally, this dependence has led to proliferation, and the skies above have become ever more densely packed with chunks of metal orbiting the planet at enormous speeds. Sometimes, they collide. One of the biggest orbital impacts to date took place in 2009 when the defunct Russian satellite Kosmos-2251 collided with Iridium 33. The relative speed of impact was estimated at 11.7 km/s or about 42,120 km/h, two large objects violently transformed into thousands of small ones in an instant. For the space industry, it’s the stuff of nightmares.

“Some people say we’ve already triggered what’s called the Kessler syndrome, where a NASA scientist predicted that, as debris collided, this would increase more and more…and the collisions become more frequent,” said John Auburn, the UK managing director and chief commercial officer of satellite removal company Astroscale.