Space debris by the numbers
The latest figures related to space debris, provided by ESA's Space Debris Office at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany.
Information correct as of January 2019
Number of rocket launches since the start of the space age in 1957:
About 5450 (excluding failures)
Number of satellites these rocket launches have placed into Earth orbit:
About 8950
Number of these still in space:
About 5000
Number of these still functioning:
About 1950
Number of debris objects regularly tracked by Space Surveillance Networks and maintained in their catalogue:
About 22 300
Estimated number of break-ups, explosions, collisions, or anomalous events resulting in fragmentation:
More than 500
Total mass of all space objects in Earth orbit:
More than 8400 tonnes
Number of debris objects estimated by statistical models to be in orbit:
34 000 objects >10 cm
900 000 objects from greater than 1 cm to 10 cm
128 million objects from greater than 1 mm to 1 cm