Called ‘e. Deorbit’, it could change everything.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), there are 128 million objects the size of 1 mm to 1 cm, 900,000 objects the size of 1 cm to 10 cm, and 34,000 objects greater than 10 cm currently whizzing around our planet.
These objects are in danger of colliding with new space missions causing untold damage. That’s why ESA is now repurposing its proposed e. Deorbit mission initially conceived to take down a derelict satellite, according to a press statement by the agency. The new mission will serve as a space servicing vehicle. ## The Clean Space initiative e. Deorbit will now be responsible for the refueling, refurbishing, and boosting of satellites already in orbit. It’s called the Clean Space initiative and it was first introduced in 2013 to safely deorbit the derelict Envisat Earth-observing satellite in highly trafficked low-Earth orbit. The satellite had suddenly stopped working in 2012 without any notice.
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