Low Earth Orbit - Space Debris

Space Debris

The LEO environment is becoming congested with space debris. This has caused growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can be damaging or even dangerous. They can, of course, produce even more space debris in the process, something known as the Kessler Syndrome. The Joint Space Operations Center, part of United States Strategic Command (formerly the United States Space Command), currently tracks more than 8,500 objects larger than 10 cm in LEO, however a limited Arecibo Observatory study suggested there could be approximately one million objects larger than 2 millimeters, which are too small to be visible from Earth.