Lucknow: The sky may look empty, but it is increasingly becoming a crowded highway of dead satellites, discarded rocket parts and fragments travelling at speeds capable of damaging spacecraft, said O P Srivastava, director of the documentary ‘The Dirty Sky’, on Sunday. He highlighted the growing threat of space debris and the risks it poses to future space missions and life on Earth.“When two satellites collided in space, I read the news and started researching about it. The idea came from there,” he said.Srivastava said the scale and speed of debris made the issue a global concern.“The next war will be of space. Debris in space is moving at 1,80,000 mph. It can be as small as 1 mm to as big as a spacecraft. More than one million objects are floating in space,” he said.He said the rapid expansion of satellite constellations was adding to the problem, while there was still no comprehensive global agreement governing space debris.“SpaceX has launched more satellites in two years than countries launched over 70 years,” he said.Srivastava highlights how collisions can create thousands of additional fragments, threatening operational satellites and astronauts. With communication, navigation, weather forecasting, digital payments and emergency services increasingly dependent on satellites, damage in orbit could have consequences far beyond space.“The issue was not limited to space agencies, warning that the growing debris could pose potential hazards for people on Earth and future space exploration,” said Srivastava.
