Due to the abundance of satellites in the Earth’s lower orbit, they may collide with space debris. Currently, 4,411 Starlink satellites of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX alone are orbiting in this orbit.
The Twitter owner has plans to install thousands more such satellites in low Earth orbit shortly. The result is that the traffic has increased tremendously in this area of space, but there is no traffic signal there.
25,000 Collisions Have Been Avoided In 6 Months
According to a new report, more than 25,000 manoeuvres had to be done to save these satellites from collisions in 6 months. If we look at the daily average, every day, 137 times, such a change has come that these satellites have been saved from colliding with some other object in space.
The report filed by SpaceX with the US Federal Communications Commission has revealed that between December 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, Starlink satellites had to be deflected more than 25,000 times. Because if it did not do so, it was possible to collide with another spacecraft, defunct satellite and other debris lying in space.
50,000 Incidents Since The Launch Of Starlink.
The report also informs that such incidents have doubled in a given 6 months compared to the 6 months prior. Since the launch of the first Starlink constellation in 2019, satellite drifts have occurred more than 50,000 times.
Debris Is Spread In The Space
The biggest reason for this strange crisis created in the sky is the debris of the space present there. Humans make this debris. In this, pieces of spacecraft, pieces of paint left from them, pieces of rockets, useless satellites or those things which are present there because of them and are spinning at a very high speed.
Speed is 56,520 Kilometres Per Hour
The danger has arisen because of them that the speed of space debris and spacecraft is 56,520 kilometres per hour. This speed is so dangerous that even a collision with a small particle can cause a lot of destruction.
A Particle Can Also Fall On A Mission Heavy
American space organization NASA is currently monitoring about 27,000 pieces orbiting in space. In 2021, NASA pointed out this problem and said that even a particle of paint at this velocity could damage the spacecraft. Several spacecraft windows have had to be replaced due to damage from paint shards. According to this, even millimetre-sized debris lying in space can destroy a mission.
The Traffic Of Starlink Is Going To Increase Further In Space
In such a situation, this danger is expected to increase further in the coming time. Because the number of satellites will increase, in which SpaceX alone has a long-term plan. The company’s CEO Elon Musk has said his goal is to send 12,000 Starlink satellites into space. Right now, only about one-third of it is orbiting the Earth. Not only this, Musk has also received partial approval from the FCC to launch 30,000 more satellites of the second-generation Starlink constellation.
This is why when SpaceX’s satellites were about to be launched in 2019, the European Space Agency moved its Aeolus Earth observation satellite to avoid the risk of collision. Similarly, in 2021, China had to divert its space station twice so that the Starlink satellite would not collide with it. China had also complained to the United Nations in this regard.
