Space Junk is a major and growing problem
Space Technologies
Good morning,
The situation in the Middle East may be ready to simmer down a bit as Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah have agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. During the months-long conflict, Israel succeeded in shwacking a long list of Hezbollah’s leaders including LH head Hassan Nasrallah, top commander Ali Karaki, deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council Nabil Kaouk, head of Hezbollah’s drone unit Mohammed Srur, leader of LH’s missile unit Ibrahim Qubaisi, leader of the 1983 Beirut bombing killing U.S. Marines Ibrahim Aqil, and quite a few more. It seems that matriculating LH leaders were prudent in agreeing to the ceasefire.
For Israel, this allows them to refocus their efforts to ending the threat from Hamas, which has also been decimated by the small state. Seeing as both LH and Hamas are Iranian proxies, and in light of the fact that Iran announced this past weekend its preparations for an attack on Israel, it will be very interesting to see what response if any comes from the Ayatollahs.
Alright, that has nothing to do with space, right? Sure, except plenty of space-based assets were used in the conflicts, but that’s neither here nor there.
There have been some interesting developments this week in space. First, the ISS had to fire its thrusters and reposition itself to avoid debris from a defunct defense meteorological satellite that broke apart a decade ago. This highlights the reality that Earth-centric orbits, and particularly LEO are starting to get crowded. We’re tracking around 12,000 satellites in various Earth-centric Orbits (see the graph below). The ESA estimates there are around 4x that number of space debris objects at least 4 inches in diameter, 1.1 million pieces ranging in size from 0.4-4 inches, and 130 million that are at least 1mm.
Let’s put that into reference. A standard 5.56mm bullet (NATO standard size) has a diameter of roughly 0.2 inches. A 10mm round has a diameter of roughly 0.4 inches. The 5.56mm bullet has a muzzle velocity of 3,130 feet-per-second (fps) while the 10mm round has a slower muzzle velocity of 1,825 feet-per-second. We’ll ignore the slower speed for a moment and just focus on the 3,130 fps speed, which translates to about 3,434 kilometers per hour (kph). Objects in LEO have an average velocity of roughly 17,000 kph or 5 times the muzzle velocity of a 5.56mm bullet. In other words, the ISS and the majority of our satellites are flying through space with hundreds of millions of bullets.
Now that’s overly simplistic. Space is huge. LEO has a total volume of around
With that much space, assuming even distribution, you’re really only going to have one bit of space debris every 2,923 cubic kilometers. Or to adapt an old Air Force aphorism: Big Space, Little Bullet. Of course there are certain orbits that are more congested than others.
Nevertheless, with the rapid proliferation of satellites and space craft, we’re going to see that number of debris increase rapidly. Remember that Boeing-made satellite that blew apart last month? It created more than 500 pieces of trackable debris. So, there’s a problem coming (or 131 million problems) and we need to prepare for it or we’ll lose access to space. Preparation takes two forms: shielding our space craft, and cleaning up the orbits. More on that to come.
Now let’s blast off!
News Headlines:
Israel and Hezbollah have reached a cease-fire agreement (AlJ)
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum is not a fan of Trump’s proposed tariffs (AP)
Satellites:
Launches:
Upcoming Launches:
Space News:
Anduril receives nearly $100M deal to modernize Space Surveillance Network (DS)
Voyager 1 turns on long-dormant radio transmitter, reestablishes connection to NASA (VOA)
Hoping to score a date with Olivia Rodrigo? Don't mention an interest in visiting space (VG)
Unsurprisingly, ULA's new rocket won't fly its first Space Force missions until 2025, now (DN)
The International Space Station forced to adjust orbit to avoid space debris (NPR)
Satellite space junk might wreak havoc on the stratosphere (ScN)
NASA satellites reveal abrupt drop in global freshwater levels (JPL)
SDA delays launch of first tranche of Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture to spring (DO)
Better data, innovation, and regulation needed to tackle growing space debris threat (SN)
Our long-time friends over at Atomic-6 won a TACFI increase worth $3.8M to advance its Space Armor shielding technology (SD)
NASA chooses SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver rover, astronaut base to the moon (SP)
Space Force eyes SpaceX's Starship for future rocket cargo delivery missions (DS)
Lockheed Martin's new mid-size satellite platform closer to launch (SN)
Ursa Space helps to reveal Chinese 'Maritime Militia' in South China Sea (VS)
Teledyne Space Imaging partners with Satlantis on very high-resolution sensor (SN)
Firefly sets January launch date for first lunar lander mission (SN)
Foreign Space News
China claims its SAR satellites launched for ChinaSiwei are the world’s first satellites capable of self-steering with no input from ground stations (SCMP)
Panel report on China's tech developments calls for U.S. action on space and AI (SN)
JAXA halts Epsiolon S rocket engine test after explosion (RT)
ISS crew reports 'unexpected odor' from Russian Progress cargo spacecraft (SN)
Space Transportation of China aims to test prototype spaceplane in 2025 (SN)
China launches pair of SuperView Neo-2 SAR satellites (SN)
Satellite imagery indicates North Korea oil imports from Russia top U.N. limits (RT)
Hungarian telecom company 4iG plans to launch EO satellites and telecomm satellites in HUSAT program (VS)
Chinese SpaceSail, rival to Starlink, strikes deal to enter Brazil (FT)
Deal Flow:
VC
Inversion Space raises $44M in Series A financing led by Spark Capital and Adjacent to further develop its reentry vehicles to deliver cargo from space (SN)
Opportunities
SDA intends to release solicitations in January for Tranche 3 of its proliferated warfighter space architecture. Stay tuned and we'll let you know when they drop. (ND)
Lighter Side:
Keep Building,
BOF