Satellite Breakup Risk Mitigation

Abstract

Many satellite breakups occur as a result of an explosion of stored energy on-board spacecraft or rocket-bodies. These breakups generate a cloud of tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of debris fragments which may pose a transient elevated threat to spaceflight crews and vehicles. Satellite breakups pose a unique threat because the majority of the debris fragments are too small to be tracked from the ground. The United States Human Spaceflight Program is currently implementing a risk mitigation strategy that includes modeling breakup events, establishing action thresholds, and prescribing corresponding mitigation actions in response to satellite breakups.