Low Earth orbit has become crowded quickly. Constellations numbering thousands of satellites now share altitudes with defunct hardware and fragments from earlier collisions.
Collision avoidance is handled largely by operators sharing data voluntarily. There is no traffic controller with authority to order a manoeuvre.
Debris compounds itself. Each collision creates fragments that raise the probability of the next, a feedback loop researchers have warned about for decades.
Proposed remedies include deorbit requirements, insurance mandates and active removal missions. All require the kind of binding international agreement that has proved elusive.
