by Abhinav Sukla

I don’t think it would be wrong to label the current era as the early dawn of the space age. Hardly half a century has passed since the first rockets left our atmosphere. Even in the early stages of space exploration, however, orbital clutter has become a serious issue. Thousands of active satellites, discarded boosters, destroyed machinery, and other pieces of orbital scrap are slowly clouding up our skies. As of now, actual rocket launches remain largely unhindered, but the debris clouds’ impact on astronomy is already beginning to show. Some studies indicate that 10–30% of twilight survey images are affected by satellite or debris streaks. Even if orbital clutter isn’t actually blocking out our skies in some dramatically dystopian fashion, it increasingly damages the data that we collect. Although stacking techniques can help mitigate the impact, the quality of Earth-based astronomy will only deteriorate if the orbital clutter problem is left unchecked. This poses an obvious question: if the problem is already noticeable and continuously worsening, why aren’t there any measures to prevent it?

The problem is not a lack of awareness but a lack of governance. When the first rocket launches were happening, the amount of space debris was low, and few would have recognized the eventual potential for such an issue. Consequently, no preventative measures were put into place. As government-led launches slowed and the private sector became more prominent, the pace of orbital expansion increased faster than existing safety and sustainability frameworks could adapt. The amount of space debris will keep increasing without regulatory systems that protect astronomers. With that said, it’s important to explore multiple potential solutions because this issue is not as straightforward as it might seem.

Simply cleaning up the existing objects and instituting systems to efficiently remove future ones seems to be the most direct solution. Unfortunately, this process is much easier said than done, and the cost to remove even a few large pieces of debris is simply not worth the trouble. The majority of debris is small and difficult to locate and discard. Cleanup efforts would be unable to keep pace with the speed of new launches. Therefore, prevention is the only remaining solution. For example, a mandate that all launched satellites must have a plan to deorbit once they have reached the ends of their operational lives. This could be achieved through controlled reentry or gradual descent mechanisms that lower the satellite’s orbit until atmospheric drag causes disintegration. Mandated safe fuel disposal to prevent explosions would also be a significant help, drastically reducing the creation of smaller debris pieces. Some system of accountability would also be prudent: for example, making the owner of the rocket responsible for pieces of debris above a certain size would take care of the largest, most obtrusive objects. Rather than mandating physical retrieval, making the owner of a launch vehicle legally responsible for large debris fragments would incentivize safer design and end-of-life planning without requiring impractical cleanup missions.

Astronomers have always had to work around obstacles to catch a glimpse of the night sky; after all, bad weather has been around for far longer than telescopes. However, such difficulties are predictable, static, and natural. The orbital debris problem is fundamentally different. It is man-made, preventable, and cumulative, and it will only worsen without deliberate intervention. Unlike atmospheric conditions or light pollution, orbital clutter cannot simply be waited out, nor can it be reversed. The most troubling aspect of the problem is exactly this lack of reversibility: there is no realistic way to “clean up” decades of accumulated debris after the fact. Prevention, therefore, is not merely preferable but essential. If action is taken now to limit further debris generation, orbital interference can remain a manageable inconvenience. In order to preserve the viability of ground-based astronomy, we must realize that Earth’s orbital environment is a resource worth protecting just as much as the atmosphere or night sky.