1800 objects launched into space in the last year alone: ​​because this is a record moment

2021 was the year the man launched more objects in space: they were 1807, mainly comprising satellites in low orbit and geostationary, but also missions beyond the Earth, of scientific exploration (such as the James Webb Telescope) towards the Moon or other bodies of the Solar System.

I’m over 10 times the tally of a decade ago. In fact, things have changed a lot since 2012: SpaceX was practically making its debut and with the Falcon 9 (two successful launches in 2010) it was preparing to revolutionize access to orbit and the new space economy. Now it is the airline with the most take-offs each year and that launches the largest number of objects: mainly proprietary satellites of the Starlink constellation.

It is no surprise that 2021 was the year with the most launches (144) and objects brought into space. It might come as a surprise, however, to know that the year that held the previous record for attempted launches was 1967. Two years before the moon landing, 139 rockets took off on a space mission; of these, 122 were successful. It was the effect of the Space Race and the impetus for Cold War competition. The loads were heavy tons, for carrying astronauts or large satellites. This has been the case for almost half a century. Things have begun to change when technology miniaturized components and made the satellites smaller and lighter. The cost of transportation has shrunk, and instead of large payload now swarms of micro satellites, cubesats and nanosats are released in a single launch.

As we said, it was the one that caused the number of objects in space to soar SpaceX, which has so far sent over 2,000 Starlink satellites into orbit: Elon Musk’s company began building its constellation for the Internet connection in 2019. And in 2021 alone it released 990, as many objects as the rest of the world, including the United States. However, the US remains the nation that launched the most, followed by Great Britain at 289, of which 284 are satellites of the other large mega constellation, OneWeb. The data are those of the archive of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, which for 2022 it has already registered 770 objects launched.

Meanwhile, SpaceX also recorded in 2022 new records: in the first 6 months has totaled 27 launches, more than one a week, some within a few hours of each other. While waiting for Amazon to start sending its own into orbit around the Earth, to build the Kuiper satellite network, space agencies (especially ESA) are wondering about how to deal with the problem of space traffic and debris. In low orbit, between 300 and one thousand kilometers of altitude, there are about 7400 classified objects, counting satellites (working and not), pieces of rockets even decades old, and space stations, of which 3800 have been launched in the last three and a half years. It means that since 2019 the number of objects that can collide while traveling at very high speed (a satellite in low orbit is close to 28 thousand kilometers per hour).

There is still no body that enforces shared rules on orbital traffic: collisions are (and will be) increasingly likely, with a cascade effect called Kessler syndrome and risks jeopardizing the space infrastructure we rely on for our daily activities. In addition to the life of the astronauts, of course.