SpaceX, which owns most satellites, could join space debris charter

By Alimat Aliyeva

The European Space Agency (ESA) is in talks with Elon Musk’s SpaceX about joining an international charter to reduce the growing amount of debris in space,
Azernews reports.

ESA, which currently brings together 22 countries, is actively involved in efforts to reduce the mass of space debris thrown into the planet’s orbit by past space missions and which pose a threat to active satellites. Joseph Aschbacher said 110 countries and institutions have already signed the ESA Zero Debris Charter, which aims to end all new formation of orbital debris by 2030.

Asked if SpaceX, which owns about two-thirds of the satellites operating in low Earth orbit, would join the initiative, the ESA director general replied: “Not yet, but we are discussing this issue with them. This is an evolving law, and core initiatives will continue in accordance with this.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Of the approximately 10,300 active satellites in orbit, about 6,300 are part of Elon Musk’s fast-growing Starlink series, according to the U.S. Space Force. Like Amazon, which plans to launch more than 3,000 Kuiper constellation satellites over the past decade, China is building its own space network to compete with Starlink.

The ESA boss added that, unlike SpaceX, the charter was signed by Amazon.

According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard University who tracks space debris, there are currently 18,897 pieces of tracked space debris in orbit. These include inactive payloads and rocket hulls, as well as debris or malfunctioning satellites.

There is currently no international law on space debris, but in recent years, countries and space agencies have begun to propose solutions to solve this problem.

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