{"id":577208,"date":"2026-08-07T04:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T04:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/577208\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T04:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T04:32:09","slug":"british-observatory-nervously-watches-growing-space-junk-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/577208\/","title":{"rendered":"British observatory nervously watches growing space junk threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHILBOLTON, United Kingdom \u2013 In the sweeping shadow of a satellite dish, staff at the Chilbolton Observatory in southern England track a growing number of objects in Earth\u2019s orbit, providing data that underpins Britain\u2019s space monitoring efforts.<\/p>\n

As the hulking antenna swivels into action, screens inside the control room light up with the names of objects the radar system detects: stars, satellites and abandoned rocket bodies.<\/p>\n

Experts at Chilbolton Observatory, operated by the Britain\u2019s national space laboratory RAL Space, monitor British-licensed satellites and fast-multiplying fragments of space debris swirling around them.<\/p>\n

The space junk includes defunct man-made objects like rocket bodies, dead satellites and fragments from launches, explosions and collisions that threaten to re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere or crash into functioning satellites.<\/p>\n

According to the European Space Agency, there are more than 46,000 pieces of debris weighing a total of 17,000 tonnes currently in orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of those don\u2019t collide with anything, most of the time,\u201d Matthew Archer, deputy director for launch and space domain awareness at the UK Space Agency told AFP on a visit to the observatory.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut any of them can cause significant damage or even destroy potential satellites.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Aug 5, part of a SpaceX rocket about the size of a bus slammed into the Moon<\/a>, unleashing a stream of debris. Researchers warn the growing density of space junk could trigger the so-called \u201cKessler syndrome\u201d cascade of collisions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Look at everything\u2019<\/p>\n

Chilbolton Observatory feeds data to the National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) \u2013 led by the UK Space Agency and UK Space Command \u2013 that works around the clock to prevent orbital collisions and track debris re-entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role is to look at everything that happens and is in space,\u201d said Archer.<\/p>\n

Space infrastructure underpins some 20 per cent of the British economy, said Archer. The growing \u201cnumber of objects is making space far more congested, so the need for this capability is growing all the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

As he speaks, multiple Starlink devices \u2013 part of the constellation of thousands of internet satellites<\/a> launched by US tycoon Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX \u2013 float by on the control room screens.<\/p>\n

There are currently 14,000 satellites orbiting Earth, with some 1.7 million satellites planned in coming years. SpaceX alone has unveiled plans to begin launching more than one million satellites in 2028.<\/p>\n

The UK has pledged to invest \u00a385 million (S$146 million) in the NSpOC, which issues around 3,000 monthly collision warnings to satellite operators.<\/p>\n

The researchers also monitor to ensure satellite operators are complying with their licences and track foreign \u201cadversaries\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see examples of countries that have demonstrated the ability to get close or to fly by certain objects,\u201d said Archer. \u201cWe do have to track … threats regularly from a military perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when space debris re-enters the atmosphere, scientists are on stand-by to issue alerts for objects which may not burn up before landfall.<\/p>\n

In January, Britain and European countries closely watched the re-entry of a Chinese rocket, amid fears fragments could land in Britain. The rocket eventually splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Asteroids<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole environment is changing,\u201d said Chilbolton Observatory\u2019s facility leader Sarah Nash. \u201cIt really is a multinational environment and there are so many objects that are not controllable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way that all of this can continue to operate safely is by keeping track of where everything is,\u201d Nash told AFP.<\/p>\n

Another branch of their work is planetary defence, which involves identifying threats like comets and asteroids.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the UK Space Agency became a member of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), which monitors the movement of asteroids including those that could hit Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work in partnership with NASA and others in the US to effectively give a percentage chance that (it) might hit the Earth and when that might happen,\u201d said Archer.<\/p>\n

While smaller space rocks frequently burn up in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, large orbiting rocks like asteroids are rarer.<\/p>\n

Britain is to support the European Space Agency\u2019s 2029 mission to study a 375m wide asteroid called Apophis as it flies by Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsteroids are a really interesting challenge in many ways. It\u2019s unusual for an asteroid to come out of nowhere,\u201d explained Nash.<\/p>\n

The giant space rocks are generally monitored by optical sensors, as they are too far away for Chilbolton\u2019s radar dish to detect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re close enough for the (radar) antenna to see them, then we have bigger problems,\u201d laughed station manager Graham Marshall. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHILBOLTON, United Kingdom \u2013 In the sweeping shadow of a satellite dish, staff at the Chilbolton Observatory in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141],"class_list":["post-577208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}