From Pale Blue Dot to Cold Grey Clot
The European Space agency has generated some alarming pictures of the ring of geostationary debris that is growing to rival the cloud of satellite dandruff already orbiting the Earth closer in.
The Agency notes
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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