List of space debris producing events

Major contributors to space debris include the explosion of upper stages and satellite collisions.[1]

Overview

There were 190 known satellite breakups between 1961 and 2006.[2] By 2015, the total had grown to 250 on-orbit fragmentation events.[3]

As of 2012 there were an estimated 500,000 pieces of debris in orbit,[4] with 300,000 pieces below 2000 km (LEO).[1] Of the total, about 20,000 are tracked.[1] Also, about sixteen old Soviet nuclear space reactors are known to have released an estimated 100,000 liquid metal (NaK) droplets 800–900 km up,[5] which range in size from 1 – 6 cm.[5]

The greatest risk to space missions is from untracked debris between 1 and 10 cm in size.[1] Large pieces can be tracked and avoided, and impact from smaller pieces are usually survivable.[1]

Top debris creation events

Top debris creation events, January 2016[6]
Object	Year	Pieces	Notes
Fengyun-1C	2007	3,428	Intentional collision (ASAT)
Kosmos 2251	2009	1,668	Accidental collision with Iridium 33
STEP 2 Rocket Body	1996	754	Accidental explosion
Iridium 33	2009	628	Accidental collision with Kosmos 2251
Kosmos 2421	2008	509	Disintegrated
SPOT 1 Rocket Body	1986	498	Accidental explosion
OV2-1 Rocket Body	1965	473	Accidental explosion
CBERS 1 Rocket Body	2000	431	Accidental explosion
Nimbus 4 Rocket Body	1970	376	Accidental explosion
TES Rocket Body	2001	372	Accidental explosion

Recent events

On 3 February 2015, the 13th DMSP satellite of the US government—DMSP-F13, launched in 1995—exploded while in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit leaving a debris field of at least 43 objects. The US Air Force Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California is monitoring the expanding debris field, and "will issue conjunction warnings if necessary."[7]

Recent events
Date	Object	International Designation	Cause	Total Pieces	Pieces in Orbit	Reentered Pieces as of February 2020
August 31, 2018	Centaur V upper stage [8]	2014-055B	Unknown [8]	80	80	0
December 22, 2018	ORBCOMM FM-16 [8]	1998-046E	Energetic fragmentation; Probably caused by left over propellent [9]	12	10	2
January 24, 2019	Microsat-R [9]	2019-006A	ASAT (Anti-Satellite) weapon system test [9]	125	16	109
February 6, 2019	H2-A 202 Rocket Body [8]	2018-084L	Unknown; Third known breakup of an H-2A Rocket Body[8]	6	5	1
February 6, 2019	H2-A 202 Payload Adapter [8]	2018-084E	Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown[8]	3	3	0
April 2019	Centaur V Rocket Body[9]	2018-079B	Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown[9]	64	64	0
May 7, 2019	Titan IIIC Transtage rocket body[10]	1976-023F	Energetic fragmentation event by caused the overheating of leftover anhydrous hydrazine(N2H4) Mono Propellant [10]	?[note 1]	?	?
August 13, 2019	Ariane 42P third stage rocket body[10]	1992-052D	Unknown [10]	7	7	0
August 19, 2019	SOZ (Sistema Obespecheniya Zapuska) ullage motor from a Proton Block DM fourth stage[10]	2010-041H	Energetic fragmentation event; caused by left over fuel in the ullage motor. 30th fragmentation event of a SOZ unit. 34 intact units remain in orbit[10]	?[note 2]	?	?

1. No fragments have entered the SSN catalog as 2/4/20
2. Due to difficulties in tracking objects in deep space elliptical orbits it is unknown how many fragments were generated

References

1. The Threat of Orbital Debris and Protecting NASA Space Assets from Satellite Collisions (2009)
2. AN ANALYSIS OF RECENT MAJOR BREAKUPS IN THE LOW EARTH ORBIT REGION
3. "ESA Experts Assess Risk from Exploded Satellite". www.esa.int. ESA. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
4. "DARPA wants army of networked amateur astronomers to watch sky for space junk, aliens". Stratrisks. 2012-11-14. Archived from the original on 2012-11-19.
5. IEEE – The Growing Threat of Space Debris Archived 2013-01-27 at the Wayback Machine
6. Meador, P. Anz (April 2016). "Top Ten Satellite Breakups Reevaluated". Orbital Debris Quarterly News. 20 (1 & 2). Retrieved May 1, 2016.
7. Berger, Brian; Gruss, Mike (27 February 2015). "20-year-old Military Weather Satellite Apparently Exploded in Orbit". Space News. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
8. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (May 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News" (PDF). Space News. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
9. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (August 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News" (PDF). Space News. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
10. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (November 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News" (PDF). Space News. Retrieved 4 February 2020.