ESA Space Environment 2025 figure 5

The number of intact objects re-entering Earth’s atmosphere in 2024 went up.

The big bump in overall re-entry numbers caused by an anti-satellite missile test at the end of 2021 peaked in 2022 (Payload Fragmentation Debris, PF in light blue) and is fading, while the rapidly rising trend is visible of satellites re-entering the atmosphere (Payloads, PL in dark blue). This is a result of improved compliance with space debris mitigation guidelines to remove satellites at the end of their lifetime from important orbits. At the same time, launchers are also re-entering in great numbers, with the controlled re-entries outnumbering uncontrolled ones for the first year in 2024.

The diagram on the right shows the trend that more larger objects are coming down, especially large payloads (PL) re-entries increased compared to last year.