TheSpace debris grew 1.37 percent over 2010 levels in the past year, and there are orbiting the Earth16,117 rubbleFrom intact rockets and launchers to the remains of these damaged devices, according to the latest quarterly report from NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office.
By “space debris” is known the number of inactive satellites, as well as old and working space rockets, and other artificial objects in orbit derived from the fragmentation of waste, generated for example in explosions. Although it does not pose a danger to Earth, it threatens the survival of the International Space Station and the hundreds of satellites in operation that circle the globe today.
Specifically, from January 1, 2011 to the same period in 2012, there are 218 more objects orbiting the globe; a figure that increases year by year but is being affected by the economic crisis, given that in 2010 space debris increased by 10 percent, while in 2009, it was 20 percent. Thus, the increase continues to be annual, although it has decreased with respect to previous records.
In a disaggregated manner, of the 16,117 space bodies that haunt the planet, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), made up of Russia and the former Soviet republics, remains for another year as the one that discharges the largest amount of garbage into space, with a total of 6,087 objects. It is followed by the United States, with 4,850, and China, with 3,615. For its part,The European Space Agency (ESA) continues to be the entity that emits the fewest objects into space, with only 85 bodies, two more than last year, and of which 41 specifically come from explosions and 44 are rockets, bodies and other debris.
In addition, there are countries that regardless of the space agency to which they belong, also send and ‘throw into Earth orbit’ space devices. Thus, it would be the case of the 489 French, the 189 that Japan has -which in 2011 has not sent any device into space-, or the 176 Indians, according to this NASA report.
NASA has also reported that2011 ended with the fewest number of satellite failures recorded since 2002. For radar detection of space debris, these debris must be larger than two inches.
