The short version, in eight cards
Last year one company's satellites dodged 300,000 times. The junk you never see has never once been cleaned up.
24 Apr 2026 · 4 min read · 12 sourcesWhat most people think
Space junk is a problem for later. Stop launching and the sky slowly clears itself.
What the data shows
0new launches
It has already started
Source · ESA Space Environment Report 2025
Even with nothing new going up, the debris count still rises. Here is where most of it came from.
Source · ESA Space Debris Office, with US Space Command and SpaceNews
Why did one test's cloud vanish while another's is still up there? The answer is the height it happened at.
Source · NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, LeoLabs and ESA
Starlink course changes in 2025
300,000+
A move is ordered when the odds of a hit pass 3-in-10-million.
at least 34 every hour, all year long 300,000 divided across the year's hours
three lakh course changes, one fleet, one year the same figure, said in lakh
That chain has a price, and it is already being paid. Start with one company's share of it.
Source · FCC orbital-debris reports and Jonathan's Space Report
Three lakh dodges is one company's bill. Here is what the rest of the sky already costs.
Source · FCC, NASA, Astroscale and Jonathan's Space Report
What you already pay
Everyone up there pays to dodge everyone else's junk.
Every avoidance burn costs fuel, which means less working life. The space station has moved 39 times since 1998. One broadband fleet moved more than 300,000 times in 2025 alone.
What nobody owes
Nobody is bound to stop making the junk.
In December 2022 the United Nations asked states to stop destructive anti-satellite tests. The vote was 155 for and 9 against. China and Russia were two of those 9. India abstained, neither for nor against, and the resolution binds nobody.
Everyone up there pays to dodge the junk, because every dodge burns fuel. Nothing has ever been removed from orbit, and only one operator has ever been fined. Both sides here are true at once.
Source · UN General Assembly resolution record, with Secure World Foundation
