'Over 1.2 million pieces...': Earth's orbit turns into graveyard with 6,000 tonnes of junk, ESA warns of urgent cleanup

The sky may still look serene, but it’s no longer safe. Above our heads, Earth’s orbit is turning into a graveyard of metal and forgotten machinery. Satellites, rocket parts, and fragments from decades of space missions now crowd the void, threatening the very missions that placed them there.

A new report from the European Space Agency (ESA) highlights the urgency. In 2024 alone, over 1,200 intact objects — including rocket stages and retired satellites — re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. That’s more than three descents per day on average, according to daily alerts issued by ESA.

Fueling this spike is a surge in commercial satellite constellations and intensifying solar activity, which adds stress to an already congested Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The report estimates that more than 1.2 million objects over a centimeter wide are now in orbit — each capable of damaging active satellites or the International Space Station.

Even if all space launches were halted today, the threat wouldn’t stop. Existing debris continues to collide and fragment faster than it can fall back to Earth, a dangerous trend known as the Kessler Syndrome. Proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler, the theory warns of an unstoppable chain reaction of collisions that could render orbit unusable.

Evidence of this growing danger is no longer theoretical. In December, Kenya’s space agency confirmed that metal debris from a 500-kilogram rocket crashed into Mukuku village in Makueni County. Months earlier, a large piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landed uninvited on a man’s lawn, having re-entered after launching Starlink satellites from California.

NASA estimates there are now about 6,000 tonnes of material circling the planet, most of it in LEO, between 100 and 1,200 miles above Earth. ESA calls it the largest space graveyard to date.

Experts agree: the only way forward is active debris removal. Without it, Kessler Syndrome could shut down future satellite operations and cripple global communications. The warning is loud and clear — clean up space, or risk losing it forever.