The European Space Agency (ESA) presented in preview, During the 9th European conference on space debris held on April 1, 2025, his short but incisive documentary entitled “Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?
“. The video focuses on an increasingly critical problem for the future of spatial explorations and operations: the growing amount of debris that orbit around our planet.
Currently,Thousands of satellites play a fundamental role in providing essential services such as telecommunications, navigation, climatic monitoring and scientific research. However, the rapid increase in space activities led these satellites to navigate in increasingly congested orbits, in an environment constantly crossed by fragments of rapid movement debris, generated by collisions and fragments that occurred in space.
The danger of this situation lies in the fact that Even a single fragment of debrite, traveling at high orbital speeds, can cause significant damage or even destroy other operational satellites. The main fear is that There is a chain reaction of collisions, known as Kessler syndrome, which could make entire orbital bands unusable for decades or even centuries. Further unknowns concern the extent of the damage deriving from the drastic increase in launches and the growing number of spatial objects that fall into the terrestrial atmosphere and oceans.
The documentary “Space Debris: Is it a Crisis“It goes into the analysis of the current state of the terrestrial orbits, clearly illustrating the concrete threat that spatial debris represent for our future in space. At the same time, the video explores possible solutions aimed at mitigating the problem and promoting sustainable use of space, underlining how the actions taken today will inevitably have consequences on future generations. Here are the video published by ESA published by ESA
The ESA Space Security Program
ESA has placed spatial security as a strategic priority through its dedicated program. The primary objective is safeguarding the future of space flight and protecting humanity, earth and spatial and terrestrial infrastructures from the dangers of extraterrestrial origin.
From asteroids and solar storms to the growing problem of spatial debris of anthropic origin, ESA is actively engaged in missions and projects aimed at fully understanding these risks and developing effective strategies to mitigate them.
In a long -term perspective, in order to guarantee a safe and sustainable spatial future, ESA aims to create a real circular economy in space. To reach this ambitious goal, The agency is investing in the development of innovative technologies that can make the “zero-debris” a concrete reality for service operations in orbit and for the design of future space vehicles.