By Alimat Aliyeva

The European Space Agency (ESA) is in talks with Elon Musk’s
SpaceX company about the possibility of joining an international
charter designed to reduce the growing amount of debris in space,
Azernews reports.

ESA, which currently unites 22 countries, is actively involved
in efforts aimed at reducing the mass of space debris thrown into
the orbit of the planet by past space missions and posing a threat
to active satellites. Joseph Aschbacher said 110 countries and
institutions have already signed the ESA zero-debris charter, which
aims to end any new formation of orbital debris by 2030.

When asked whether SpaceX, which owns about two thirds of
satellites operating in low Earth orbit, will join this initiative,
the ESA Director General replied: “Not yet, but we are discussing
this issue with them. This is a constantly evolving law, and
fundamental initiatives will continue in accordance with it.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Of
the approximately 10,300 active satellites in orbit, about 6,300
are part of Elon Musk’s fast-growing Starlink series, according to
the U.S. Space Force. Like Amazon, which plans to launch more than
3,000 Kuiper constellation satellites over the past decade, China
is building its own space array to compete with Starlink.

The head of ESA added that, unlike SpaceX, the charter was
signed by Amazon.

According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard
University who tracks space debris, there are currently 18,897
tracked fragments of space debris in orbit. They consist of
inactive payloads and rocket hulls, as well as debris or
malfunctioning satellites.

Currently, there are no international laws on space debris, but
in recent years, countries and space agencies have begun to come up
with proposals to solve this problem.

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