That is the current situation in orbit, and it cannot be allowed to continue,” said Jan Wörner, director-general of the European Space Agency (ESA), after the agency’s last ministerial summit in Seville last November. “Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be if all the ships even lost in history were still drifting on top of the water. The risks to our communication systems and the future of space flight posed by this useless space debris are nevertheless enormous. In numerical terms, 95% of all man-made objects spinning around the Earth are garbage.
This agglomeration has been given the indisputably appropriate name of space junk. This strange population of abandoned satellites, wandering through space, shares occupancy with the remains of the rocket boosters that lifted them into their orbits and the millions of fragments into which they break down when they collide or explode. These new projects will support our leading role in cleaning up our orbit, which has been neglected for far too long, and will help keep satellites operating safely so they can continue to provide vital services such as communications and climate change monitoring.Since the 1957 launch of the first satellite, the famous Sputnik I, which ushered in the space age, another 9,600 devices have ascended into Earth’s orbit, but only a small portion of them, some 2,300, are still in operation. Our National Space Strategy sets out our vision for a thriving UK space sector that pushes the boundaries of innovation including a specific commitment to lead in clearing space debris. Science minister George Freeman said: “Growing reliance on satellites for a range of everyday utilities from satnav to meteorology is making the space tech sector increasingly valuable to the UK economy. The government said that the “orbital congestion” caused by the 900,000 items of debris around the Earth – including defunct satellites, rocket parts and other items – is a major global challenge.
UKSA will also work collaboratively with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs to deliver a programme of work intended to “advance global awareness on space sustainability” and help ensure UN guidelines are met. Minister defies value-for-money concerns to push ahead with £400m OneWeb buyout.How the UK Space Agency is improving public services from the exosphere.UK backs mission to land first woman on the moon.
How to clean space junk software#
The UK Space Agency has picked two firms – Swiss outfit ClearSpace and Japanese-headquartered Astroscale – to receive funding to deliver research supporting a “UK-led mission to remove junk from space”.Ī further partnership has been agreed with Numerica, a US firm that will provide “provide high-quality space surveillance and tracking data from a worldwide network of optical telescopes and state-of-the-art software solutions”. The government has announced funding programmes and other initiatives to target rubbish clogging up outer space