A family from Naples, Florida, is filing a claim with NASA for damages for their home after a piece of space debris from the International Space Station pierced their roof earlier this year.
According to the Charlotte Observer, NASA confirmed last week that a large piece of debris found along a North Carolina hiking trail last May came from a SpaceX Dragon rocket, and a North Carolina resident in the neighboring county heard a piece bounce off his home.
According to the U.S. Space Command, large fiery streaks of light appeared over Los Angeles in April; they were space debris from a Chinese spacecraft.
Last year, a huge piece of an Indian missile washed up on the coast of Australia.
What is space junk?
The more objects we send into low Earth orbit (LEO), the greater the chance that pieces of them will come back to us. Space debris, also called orbital junk or simply space junk, is any man-made object in Earth’s orbit that has no use.
“LEO is an orbital space junkyard,” NASA said. “Leo is home to millions of pieces of space debris. The majority of space debris consists of man-made objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny specks of paint from spacecraft, pieces of rockets, defunct satellites, or explosions from objects flying at high speeds in space.”
Space debris is created by broken satellites, meteorite impacts, and even tools dropped by astronauts during spacewalks.
According to NASA, space debris can include:
- Abandoned spacecraft and upper stages of launch vehicles
- Carrier for multiple payloads
- Debris intentionally released during the separation of the spacecraft from the launch vehicle or during the mission
- Debris resulting from explosions or collisions of spacecraft or upper stages
- Exhaust gases from solid rocket engines
- Tiny spots of color released by thermal stress or small particle impacts
Most of it up there comes from satellite explosions and collisions, NASA said.
In 2007, China intentionally destroyed its Fengyun-1C weather satellite to test an anti-satellite device, leaving a cloud of shrapnel and debris in low Earth orbit. An American communications satellite (Iridium 33) and an abandoned Russian military satellite (Kosmos 2251) accidentally collided in 2007, hurling more debris into orbit, some of which is expected to remain there until the end of the century. These two incidents led to a 70% increase in space debris in low Earth orbit.
There is also space debris that never made it into space. In 2015, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded shortly after launch, and parts of it rained into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida and Georgia. Some chunks turned up months later on the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern tip of Cornwall in England.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded shortly after launch on its first test flight in April last year, sending chunks of metal and concrete flying into a national wildlife refuge and emitting particulate matter miles from the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. Environmental groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration, arguing that Elon Musk’s company was allowed to bypass environmental reviews.
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How much space junk is in the sky?
In June, the European Space Agency estimated that there were more than 12,400 tons of objects in Earth’s orbit, including up to 36,500 catalogued pieces of debris measuring about 10 centimeters or more.
But not all objects are tracked. ESA estimates that there are 130 million pieces of space debris between 6 and 10 centimetres in orbit, travelling at high speed and posing a potential threat to spacecraft and satellites. Most of the small pieces burn up when they enter the Earth’s gravity, but some pieces are large enough to cause an impact.
“There are no international space laws governing the removal of debris in our low Earth orbit,” NASA said.
Space agencies around the world are working on ways to contain space debris, but getting rid of tiny particles floating around Earth is a very thorny problem.
What are the chances of being hit by space debris?
According to the European Space Agency, the risk of being injured by falling space debris is less than 1 in 100 billion. But the probability is increasing (slightly).
“Over the past 50 years, an average of one catalogued piece of debris has fallen back to Earth every day,” NASA said. Most pieces burn up on impact, and those that make it to Earth tend to end up in the ocean or in sparsely populated areas such as the Canadian tundra, the Australian outback, or Siberia.
However, space exploration and the number of satellite launches have increased exponentially in recent years. According to ESA data, nearly 2,500 pieces of space debris fell to Earth in 2022, although that number dropped to about 1,500 last year.
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Who is liable for damage caused by space debris?
This was already drafted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in 1972. The Liability Convention, which further elaborates on Article 7 of the Outer Space Treaty, stipulates that “a launching State shall be fully liable for damage caused by its space objects to the Earth’s surface or to aircraft, and for damage resulting from its errors in outer space,” according to UN-Space.
“The Convention also provides for procedures for the settlement of claims for compensation.”
Last year, as part of an effort to combat space debris, the Federal Communications Commission fined Dish Network $150,000 for failing to return an old satellite to a safe orbit as promised.
What do I do if I find space junk?
NASA has set up a space debris hotline: 866-623-0234. The agency recommends contacting authorities if you find or discover a piece of space debris and avoiding touching it.
After the explosion in 2015, SpaceX set up a recovery hotline and email address for anyone who found debris. It is still available. You can call the debris recovery hotline at 866-392-0035 or email recovery@spaceX.com.