Major contributors to
space debris include the explosion of upper stages and satellite collisions.
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]
Overview
There were 190 known satellite breakups between 1961 and 2006.[AN ANALYSIS OF RECENT MAJOR BREAKUPS IN THE LOW EARTH ORBIT REGION]
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By 2015, the total had grown to 250 on-orbit fragmentation events.[
]
there were an estimated 500,000 pieces of debris in orbit,[ Of the total, about 20,000 are tracked.][The Threat of Orbital Debris and Protecting NASA Space Assets from Satellite Collisions (2009)]
/ref> Also, about sixteen old Soviet nuclear space reactors are known to have released an estimated 100,000 NaK
In data networking, telecommunications, and computer buses, an acknowledgment (ACK) is a signal that is passed between communicating processes, computers, or devices to signify acknowledgment, or receipt of message, as part of a communicatio ...
liquid metal coolant droplets 800–900 km up,[IEEE – The Growing Threat of Space Debris]
which range in size from 1 – 6 cm.[
The greatest risk to space missions is from untracked debris between 1 and 10 cm in size.][ Large pieces can be tracked and avoided, and impact from smaller pieces are usually survivable.][
]
Top debris creation events
Recent events
References
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Space debris