Space debris: evolution in pictures

Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.

Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).

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HI-RES JPEG HI-RES TIFF

Caption:

The geostationary ring

Credits:

ESA

ID number:

SEMP7OK26DF

HI-RES JPEG size:

863 kb

HI-RES TIFF size:

5667 kb

Related Images:

Operations

Telecommunications

Description

The geostationary ring, at an altitude of about 36,000 km. This orbit is heavily used by telecommunication satellites.

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