#space debris

The 25-year post-mission deorbit guideline was adopted in 2002 to control debris growth in LEO. Historical compliance has been ~50%. Mega-constellations of thousands of satellites have made the rule's underlying assumptions obsolete — and regulators are responding.

Over 36,000 tracked objects orbit Earth at speeds that make a centimetre of debris as lethal as a hand grenade. Donald Kessler's 1978 cascade model, the current LEO situation, and why remediation may already be urgent.