Illustration of space debris orbiting Earth. Photo: EvgeniyShkolenko/Getty.
Astronomer and space debris expert Jonathan McDowell announced on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that the Soviet satellite, Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145 (both launched in 1991), was recently destroyed, as reported by Space on August 30. This event highlights the danger in Earth’s orbit, where debris from over 60 years of human space exploration is becoming a threat to both satellites and new spacecraft.
“A collision in orbit may have occurred: 7 space debris pieces have been identified from a non-operational Soviet communication satellite launched in 1991. The debris appears to belong to Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145, two of the 8 Strela-1M satellites launched on the same rocket,” McDowell stated.
Old Soviet satellites and spent rocket stages orbiting at altitudes above 800 km have been a major concern for researchers. They are too high to easily deorbit due to the natural atmospheric drag, and have previously caused a few incidents.
The exact cause of the Soviet satellite’s breakup remains unknown and may never be determined. Earth-based radars can only track objects larger than 10 cm. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), approximately 34,550 objects of this size exist in Earth’s orbit.
In addition to visible space debris, about 1 million objects between 1 and 10 cm in size and 130 million objects smaller than 1 cm are still flying in space, as estimated by the ESA. When radar detects a sufficiently large object approaching an operational satellite, operators receive a warning and can move the satellite out of harm’s way. However, there is no warning for objects that are too small, despite their potential for significant damage.
For years, scientists have been warning about the increasing amount of space debris in Earth’s orbit. Some fear the Kessler Syndrome may be approaching. Named after physicist Donald Kessler, who previously worked at NASA, the Kessler Syndrome predicts that the increasing number of debris fragments will eventually render the space around Earth unusable because each collision creates additional fragments and leads to successive collisions.