Europe seeks solutions to remedy increase in space debris
Several EU countries, such as Germany and France, already have space laws, but Brussels will present the first European Space Law in the coming months.
More and more satellites are being sent to space. Most of them move in what is known as low Earth orbit, about 1,000 kilometres from Earth.
One of the reasons for this increase is the growth in the uses of satellites, the more traditional ones such as meteorological or military, can now also be used to provide internet to remote places.
“The space race is growing and growing,” Gisela Süss of the European Space Agency (ESA) told Euronews.
According to ESA data, there are some 12,500 satellites in Earth orbit. “Now, for example, we have constellations being launched into space from the United States, and it is increasingly becoming a business as well,” she said at the European Space Forum, held on 24-25 June in Brussels and organized by Forum Europe.
This has made it increasingly ‘interesting’ for private companies to send satellites into space, says Süss. She refers, for example, to projects such as SpaceX’s Starlink or Amazon’s Kuiper. Starlink currently has around 6,000 devices in orbit in various constellations, while Kuiper expects to add around 2,300 when the project is deployed.
