{"id":579684,"date":"2026-05-12T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/579684\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:00:11","slug":"how-we-protected-the-uk-and-space-in-april-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/579684\/","title":{"rendered":"How we protected the UK and space in April 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April saw generally sustained levels of space activity, with similar levels of uncontrolled re-entries and space weather activity but fewer collision alerts when compared with March.<\/p>\n<p>All \u00a0NSpOC warning and protection services were functioning throughout the period.<\/p>\n<p>Re-entry analysis<\/p>\n<p>There was a 6% decrease in the number of objects re-entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere, monitored by NSpOC, when compared with the previous month.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 68 objects that re-entered, 56 were satellites, nine were rocket bodies and three were likely pieces of debris.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/6a01c3cb81a251700a20b38e\/Re-entry_Manual.svg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>May: 64, June: 55, July: 52, August: 34, September: 39, October: 54, November: 43, December: 52, January: 50, February: 66, March: 72, April: 68<\/p>\n<p>Collision avoidance analysis<\/p>\n<p>Collision risks to UK-licensed satellites were 35% lower in April than in March but remained broadly aligned to the 12-month rolling average.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/6a01c3ede71c4cdf4026b9b6\/Collision_Avoidance_manual.svg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>May: 1,546, June: 1,259, July: 1,038, August: 971, September: 1,537, October: 2,402, November: 2,472, December: 2,643, January: 2,608, February: 2,117, March: 1,847, April: 1,194<\/p>\n<p>Registered Space Objects (RSOs) analysis<\/p>\n<p>The in-orbit population increased in April, with a net addition of 223 objects to the US Satellite Catalogue.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/6a01c4232a6137e93226b96b\/RSO_Manual__NEW_.svg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>May: 30,538, June: 30,862, July: 31,070, August: 31,324, September, 31,612, October: 31,905, November: 32,289, December: 32,678, January: 32,905, February: 33,143, March: 33,528, April: 33,756<\/p>\n<p>The number of Resident Space Objects (RSOs) reported may be subject to small adjustments over time as the way objects are tracked is refined. Figures in this report reflect the most current available data and may differ slightly from those published in previous months.<\/p>\n<p>Fragmentation analysis<\/p>\n<p>There have been no new fragmentation (break-up) incidents this month.<\/p>\n<p>Space weather analysis<\/p>\n<p>Space weather activity was similar in April when compared with the previous month, with geomagnetic storms and solar flares registered throughout the month.<\/p>\n<p>The National Space Operations Centre combines and coordinates UK civil and military space domain awareness capabilities to enable operations, promote prosperity and protect UK interests in space and on Earth from space-related threats, risks and hazards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April saw generally sustained levels of space activity, with similar levels of uncontrolled re-entries and space weather activity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-579684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}