The tumbling crisis: why dead satellites threaten orbit Every year, hundreds of satellites reach end-of-life, most are deorbited, but some fail abruptly. Yet, even when properly decommissioned, some dead satellites may start tumbling on their own, through the accumulation of tiny disturbances like solar radiation pressure, to the point where they become impossible to capture by active debris removal missions. With over 36,500 tracked debris objects in orbit, the risk of cascading collisions is real. ESA warns that without ADR (Active Debris Removal) solutions, some LEO orbits will become unusable….
