Latest Low Earth orbit Stories
Next year’s Hollywood film Gravity features George Clooney stranded in orbit by cascading space junk. The threat is genuine, with debris levels rising steadily. ESA’s new Clean Space initiative is developing methods of preserving near-Earth space – and the terrestrial environment, too. Responding to public environmental concerns, Clean Space aims to reduce the environmental effect of Europe’s space activities, cutting waste and pollution on Earth and in orbit. Industry is...
A Pentagon report warned that space is so littered with debris that a collision between satellites could set off an "uncontrolled chain reaction" capable of destroying the communications network on Earth. Scientists said that the volume of abandoned rockets, shattered satellites and missile shrapnel in Earth's orbit is reaching a "tipping point" and is now threatening the $250 billion space services industry. The report said that a collision between two satellites or large...
Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) announced recently that Dr. Kristin L. Gates will present a paper on de-orbiting space junk at the August 2 Artificial and Natural Space Debris session of the AIAA Astrodynamics Specialists Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Gates will describe GAC's Gossamer Orbit Lowering Device (GOLD) for safe and efficient removal from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of dangerous space objects. The patented GOLD system concept uses a very large ultra thin balloon envelope...
The major powers of the world are being called upon to clean up space "litter" that is becoming increasingly dangerous for spacecraft, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command said on Wednesday.According to Reuters, former astronaut and Air Force General Kevin Chilton told an Israeli audience that the U.S. has documented more than 15,000 items, including jettisoned rockets, shuttle detritus, and pieces of destroyed satellites floating in space, reported Reuters."The estimation is that...
Two satellites collided in orbit on Tuesday, prompting NASA to announce it to be the first collision of its kind in space. A US commercially-owned satellite collided with a crippled Russian military satellite in low-earth orbit. The commercial satellite was owned by Bethseda, Maryland-based Iridium Satellite LLC, which characterized the event as "extremely unusual."However, "the Iridium constellation is uniquely designed to withstand such an event, and the company is taking the necessary...
ESA -- There is a lot of junk orbiting the Earth and the problem will worsen unless there are changes in how spacecraft operators operate. But it is not all doom and gloom. The first steps toward a comprehensive solution are already well underway including a European code of conduct for space debris mitigation.According to Dr Ruediger Jehn, a space debris specialist working at ESA's Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, there are several relatively simple measures that will help reduce...
