This week’s blog was written by Quinn, a Bucktails alum. Quinn is really curious about nature and enjoys writing about what he learns. He works with the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful campaign as a Youth Ambassador. When he is not out on the trails near his home, Quinn can be found playing drums, dancing, playing hockey, managing a VR esports team, biking, or hanging out on the couch with his two cats.
While most people would recognize that humans are responsible for the problematic amount of pollution on earth, what many do not know is that our pollution has grown beyond just the surface and is now spreading to the stars. This space pollution is called orbital debris, and is made up of different pieces of rockets, old payloads, obsolete satellites, and up to 20,000 pieces of debris from unknown origins.
But, how much could there even be, you may wonder. Well, according to the ESA (European Space Agency) there are 54000 space objects greater than 10 cm (including approx. 9300 active payloads), 1.2 million space debris objects from greater than 1 cm to 10 cm, and 140 million space debris objects from greater than 1 mm to 1 cm. This volume is due to a total of 7170 rockets launched since the start of the 1950s space age, all creating debris from spent stages and fragmenting parts.
Space debris travels at incredible speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour.
In addition, the majority of rockets have been used to deploy new satellites, creating a different, but very similar problem of orbital clutter. Specifically, around 25,170 satellites have been placed into orbit by these rockets, creating even more clutter even though they are active pieces of technology. With all of this varied debris, the estimated total mass is 15,800 tons of space debris in our atmosphere.
Okay, but so what if there’s a bunch of metal in space – it doesn’t really affect us down here, right? Well, not exactly. The greatest impact of space debris is the threat it poses to in-operation technology, as it can come into contact with manned shuttles, in-use satellites and space stations, causing loss of money and danger to pilots. An example of this happened fairly recently, when the Shenzhou 20 was hit by a piece of debris, cracking a window and delaying the return of its crew.
The worst part is, you can’t just be happy that you avoided the same fate by choosing not to pursue the “astronaut dream”, because on average, a piece of space debris falls back into earth’s atmosphere every day! Now, most of it will burn up in the atmosphere, but certainly not all of it – and here’s where the earth-bound come into play. Consider the pilot who was injured when the windshield of a commercial airliner was shattered by a piece of space debris – they were just an innocent bystander. While your chances of being injured or worse by a piece of space debris are immensely low right now, who knows what our future could look like as the amount of space debris continues to grow at an exponential rate.
Space debris can hit satellites at high speeds causing massive damage.
Space debris can leave earth’s orbit and crash down to earth without first burning up in the atmosphere.
Our fate isn’t sealed yet, though, as there are scientific organizations looking to reduce space debris through multiple methods. The most prominent method currently under consideration is simply prevention, which could be achieved through regulating the amount of waste a rocket produces. In addition, some more technological solutions are being tested, such as the “OMLET”, an orbital laser system that will be able to shoot a high powered laser at debris that is on a collision course with satellites, and change the debris trajectory to avoid impact.
Still, the issue of orbital debris is massively underrecognized and researched. So make sure to stay updated on the current state of the issue and support its prevention; but just in case, watch out for falling metal, earthlings!
Orbital Crowding: Beware the Environmental Fallout!
Posted: May 16, 2026 by Katie Mace
This week’s blog was written by Quinn, a Bucktails alum. Quinn is really curious about nature and enjoys writing about what he learns. He works with the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful campaign as a Youth Ambassador. When he is not out on the trails near his home, Quinn can be found playing drums, dancing, playing hockey, managing a VR esports team, biking, or hanging out on the couch with his two cats.
While most people would recognize that humans are responsible for the problematic amount of pollution on earth, what many do not know is that our pollution has grown beyond just the surface and is now spreading to the stars. This space pollution is called orbital debris, and is made up of different pieces of rockets, old payloads, obsolete satellites, and up to 20,000 pieces of debris from unknown origins.
But, how much could there even be, you may wonder. Well, according to the ESA (European Space Agency) there are 54000 space objects greater than 10 cm (including approx. 9300 active payloads), 1.2 million space debris objects from greater than 1 cm to 10 cm, and 140 million space debris objects from greater than 1 mm to 1 cm. This volume is due to a total of 7170 rockets launched since the start of the 1950s space age, all creating debris from spent stages and fragmenting parts.
In addition, the majority of rockets have been used to deploy new satellites, creating a different, but very similar problem of orbital clutter. Specifically, around 25,170 satellites have been placed into orbit by these rockets, creating even more clutter even though they are active pieces of technology. With all of this varied debris, the estimated total mass is 15,800 tons of space debris in our atmosphere.
Okay, but so what if there’s a bunch of metal in space – it doesn’t really affect us down here, right? Well, not exactly. The greatest impact of space debris is the threat it poses to in-operation technology, as it can come into contact with manned shuttles, in-use satellites and space stations, causing loss of money and danger to pilots. An example of this happened fairly recently, when the Shenzhou 20 was hit by a piece of debris, cracking a window and delaying the return of its crew.
The worst part is, you can’t just be happy that you avoided the same fate by choosing not to pursue the “astronaut dream”, because on average, a piece of space debris falls back into earth’s atmosphere every day! Now, most of it will burn up in the atmosphere, but certainly not all of it – and here’s where the earth-bound come into play. Consider the pilot who was injured when the windshield of a commercial airliner was shattered by a piece of space debris – they were just an innocent bystander. While your chances of being injured or worse by a piece of space debris are immensely low right now, who knows what our future could look like as the amount of space debris continues to grow at an exponential rate.
Our fate isn’t sealed yet, though, as there are scientific organizations looking to reduce space debris through multiple methods. The most prominent method currently under consideration is simply prevention, which could be achieved through regulating the amount of waste a rocket produces. In addition, some more technological solutions are being tested, such as the “OMLET”, an orbital laser system that will be able to shoot a high powered laser at debris that is on a collision course with satellites, and change the debris trajectory to avoid impact.
Still, the issue of orbital debris is massively underrecognized and researched. So make sure to stay updated on the current state of the issue and support its prevention; but just in case, watch out for falling metal, earthlings!
Category: Youth Blog Tags: featured, pollution