Over 3,600 pieces of space junk entered Earth’s orbit in 2024: ISRO
Authored By Subhadra Srivastava
Published: May 30, 2025, 17:21 IST | Updated: May 30, 2025, 17:21 IST
According to ISRO’s latest Indian Space Situational Assessment Report (ISSAR), a record 261 launch attempts were made globally in 2024, out of which 254 were successful. These launches placed at least 2,578 active satellites and 2,963 total objects into our orbit.
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(Photograph:NASA)
Record Launches in 2024
By the end of 2024, Earth’s orbit had become even more crowded. A total of 3,665 space objects have been added to the orbital population. According to ISRO’s latest Indian Space Situational Assessment Report (ISSAR), a record 261 launch attempts were made globally in 2024, out of which 254 were successful. These launches placed at least 2,578 active satellites and 2,963 total objects into our orbit. Although the number of launches increased, the number of objects were also added, which was lower than in 2023 as it saw 3,135 objects launched from about 212 missions.
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(Photograph:NASA)
Renewed Interest in Lunar Exploration
The year saw five big lunar missions being launched, proving a growing global interest in lunar exploration and space missions. These also included missions from multiple countries, thus signalling ongoing ambitions in deep space and Moon-related research.
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(Photograph:NASA)
Space Debris Sees Net Growth
In 2024, three major fragmentation events occurred which considerably contributed to the space debris environment of the earth. One of the most notable was the breakup of a Chinese Long March (CZ-6A) rocket stage, which alone produced approximately 650 catalogued fragments. By year-end, at least 702 fragmented objects were added to the debris population.
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(Photograph:NASA)
Total Additions and Re-entries
According to the ISRO report, a total of 3,665 objects were added to space from launches and breakups in 2024. Meanwhile, 2,095 catalogued objects later re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, the highest on record, till date. This included 335 Starlink satellites that were deliberately de-orbited. The higher number of re-entries was also attribute to increased solar activity linked to Solar Cycle 25.
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(Photograph:ISRO)
India’s Space Activity
A total of 136 Indian spacecraft were in orbit by the end of 2024, including 22 government satellites in Low Earth Orbit and 31 in Geosynchronous Orbit. Deep space missions such as Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter and Aditya-L1 remained operational. The Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module continued functioning in a high Earth orbit following its relocation from lunar orbit in November 2023.
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(Photograph:ISRO)
Indian Launch Summary
The report also highlights that in 2024, India conducted five successful launches, from Sriharikota, deploying satellites including XPoSat, Proba-3, SpaDex, Insat-3ds, and EOS-08. Additionally, GSAT-20 and TSAT-1A were launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Hence, a total of eight indian and one foreign satellite, with six rocket bodies were added to the orbit by these missions.
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