2023 ESA Space Environment Report
Space vehicles provide essential services despite increasing debris.
Our planet is constantly monitored by space vehicles carrying out various crucial missions, ranging from studying climate change to providing global communication and navigation services. However, their trajectories are gradually becoming more crowded, with an increasing number of debris from inactive satellites and launchers. In 2002, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) issued guidelines for space debris mitigation. Since 2016, ESA’s Space Debris Office has published an annual report on the state of the space environment.
