More than 40 companies, research centres and international organisations have signed the Zero Debris Charter from the European Space Agency (ESA), showing a commitment to ensure future missions become debris neutral in space by 2030.

According to ESA, there are currently 130 million pieces of space debris larger than a millimetre orbiting Earth. Not only does this ‘space junk’ pose a threat to satellites and spacecraft, several of which have been damaged or destroyed already, but once a week a satellite or rocket body reenters uncontrollably through our atmosphere.

In November 2023, ESA introduced an internal standard to significantly limit the production of debris in Earth and Lunar orbits by 2030 from its own missions. This ‘zero debris approach’ will rely on debris mitigation and remediation technology developed by ESA's Space Safety Programme.

Following the launch of this approach, ESA then facilitated a global initiative for all space entities to sign and follow the Zero Debris...