The risk of satellite collisions is growing as space gets more crowded, with more than 12,000 active satellites orbiting Earth, as well as debris like spent rocket casings, dead satellites and broken bits of equipment.
The number of active satellites is expected to grow in the coming years as launches become more affordable. Starlink alone aims to launch a constellation of more than 40,000 satellites into orbit, not to mention the large constellations that will underpin broadband internet projects from both Amazon and China. NASA received approximately 20,000 collision warnings every month in the first half of 2025, a four-fold increase since 2020.
","author_name":"Michigan Engineering "}