30 blue whales of space junk The amount of debris in orbit around Earth is increasing rapidly. The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates there are more than 40,000 pieces larger than 10cm in orbit ...

Christopher Fluke works for Swinburne University of Technology. He has previously received funding from the SmartSat CRC, including funding to support a research collaboration with CGI Australia ...

The 22-nation agency is spearheading one of several efforts to roll back the mass of space junk swirling round the planet from past missions that poses a risk to active satellites. Aschbacher said ...

The amount of space debris (old satellites and spent rocket stages) falling back to Earth has doubled over the past 10 years. A few hundred tonnes of old space junk now vaporises in the atmosphere ...