{"id":648999,"date":"2026-05-17T18:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/648999\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T18:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:24:08","slug":"nearly-half-the-objects-orbiting-earth-are-uncontrollable-space-junk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/648999\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly half the objects orbiting Earth are ‘uncontrollable’ space junk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly half the manmade objects orbiting Earth are chunks of \u201cuncontrollable\u201d space junk<\/a> \u2014 with just three countries fueling the problem and endangering future space travel, a shocking new study found.<\/p>\n

At least 15,587 of the 33,269 tracked objects circling the planet are discarded debris from space launches \u2014 meaning a whopping 47% of the stuff hurtling around the planet is potentially hazardous junk, according to a May report<\/a> from the engineering supply company Accu.<\/p>\n

Those objects include at least 2,396 discarded rocket bodies \u2014 sometimes hundreds of feet across in length \u2014 12,550 expended launch components which can vary in size and shape, and 641 objects which haven\u2019t been classified.<\/p>\n

An artist\u2019s rendering depicts pieces of artificial satellites floating around in space. Framestock \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The other 17,682 objects are \u201cpayloads\u201d \u2014 satellites ranging from the likes of SpaceX\u2019s StarLink networks to NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope. <\/p>\n

But some of those payload satellites are out of commission, which only adds to the amount of junk orbiting Earth.<\/p>\n

And most alarmingly, many of those bodies of heavy metal junk are whipping around the planet at nearly 20,000 mph every day \u2014 posing an enormous risk to other space missions, experts said.<\/p>\n

This spent stage of an Apollo rocket booster is similar to debris now drifting in orbit around the Earth Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly half of all tracked objects already fall into categories with no control or purpose,\u201d wrote the Accu report, which collated data from the US Space Force\u2019s Space-Track.org for its study.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, spacecraft must now be designed with greater tolerance to debris impacts and more robust shielding, as even a tiny fragment can destroy an entire mission,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The warning is no exaggeration: In 2016, a fleck of paint or metal just a fraction of a millimeter across left a 7mm-long gouge in a window of the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

A piece of debris just 10 cm across is enough to blast a satellite to pieces, while a 1 cm bit of junk is considered sufficient to knock a spacecraft out of commission \u2014 or even break through the shields of the Space Station, according to the European Space Station.<\/p>\n

Astronauts have even been required to seek shelter while in orbit because of debris in the past \u2014 with the ISS crew notably retreating to a more secure location onboard in 2021 when it passed dangerously close to a cloud of Russian junk.<\/p>\n

A similar situation happened in November<\/a> when a Chinese spacecraft was believed to have been struck by debris, leaving three astronauts stuck in space while the damage was assessed.<\/p>\n

Space junk is also a problem which could compound itself \u2014 with one collision leading to more collisions and debris, which could then spark a chain reaction of destruction that shreds everything in Earth\u2019s orbit to pieces.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a situation known among astronautical engineers as the \u201cKessler Syndrome\u201d and could jeopardize humanity\u2019s very ability to operate in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could continue until the entire orbital space is covered with space junk, making parts of space too crowded and risky for satellites and future missions,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n

A dangerous 7 mm gouge in an International Space Station window was believed to be caused by a miniscule piece of space debris. European Space Agency<\/p>\n

The number of orbiting hazards is also on the rise, according Accu\u2019s study, which found the amount of manmade objects entering Earth\u2019s orbit has increased steadily beginning with the launch of the Soviet Union\u2019s Sputnik I in 1957 \u2014 but skyrocketed in 2015, when the private space industry began to take off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of objects in space has climbed sharply ever since,\u201d the report read. \u201cThis means space is getting more crowded and debris is accumulating faster than it can be removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem that\u2019s being fueled almost entirely by just three actors: China, the United States and the Russia-centric Commonwealth of Independent States formed across Eurasia after the fall of the USSR.<\/p>\n

Those three countries and groups account for a shocking 96% of the trackable junk orbiting Earth \u2014 with China leading the pack at 34%, and the CIS and US close behind at 31% each.<\/p>\n

Both the CIS and US have historically left behind<\/a> more junk than China, but the vast majority has fallen from orbit to burn up in the atmosphere, while China\u2019s has remained around the planet, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe space debris crisis is no longer just an environmental challenge, it\u2019s becoming a critical technical problem for engineers, affecting how they design and operate spacecraft,\u201d the report read. \u201cThis is set to become an even bigger problem in the future as more satellites are launched and space gets more crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several technologies are being developed to address the problem, with private companies such Astroscale ClearSpace joining agencies including NASA in the design and deployment of counter measures.<\/p>\n

Methods under development include deploying sails which create drag in the high atmosphere to accelerate the breakdown of a satellite\u2019s orbit, blasting debris with lasers known as \u201cbrooms\u201d to alter orbits and drop debris into the atmosphere to burn up, and magnetic systems which collect the debris for removal.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the scale and speed of debris, to the rising density of objects in orbit and the contribution of major space actors, it is clear that the risks are accelerating,\u201d the report read. <\/p>\n

\u201cSpace debris is a key challenge of the modern space age, but how it is tackled will drive innovation and define the future of space exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly half the manmade objects orbiting Earth are chunks of \u201cuncontrollable\u201d space junk \u2014 with just three countries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[718,20200,79,193,13059,965],"class_list":["post-648999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-nasa","tag-pollution","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-program","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}