Space Debris Mitigation

Authors	Miles Timpe
Responsible	Miles Timpe
Last Updated	10/12/2025, 12:48:54 PM
Last Author	Kai Berszin

Orbit Lifetime Analysis

As the number of objects in orbit continues to grow rapidly, space traffic is becoming increasingly difficult to manage in low Earth orbit (LEO). Indeed, the risk of collision between both active and derelict objects has increased significantly. In order to mitigate this problem, end-of-life disposal guidelines have been implemented by a growing list of space agencies and international organizations.

These disposal guidelines recommend that satellites in LEO (< 2000 km) reenter Earth’s atmo- sphere within a certain number of years after the end of their mission. By deorbiting inactive satellites, new operational orbits are cleared for new satellites and the risk of collisions is reduced. Until recently, the recommended disposal lifetime was 25 years. However, due to the rapidly growing number of satellites in LEO, many space agencies are now recommending a much stricter disposal time scale of 5 years post-mission. The World Economic Forum published in June 2023 their recommendations for space debris mitigation. All spacecrafts in LEO should aim to de-orbit within five years after the end of life. This rule should be applied progressively to new missions from 2023 with the aim of putting them into full effect by 2025. Since SAGE does not have active control over its position (e.g., with thrusters), it is therefore planned that SAGE will operate in an orbit from which it naturally de-orbits within 5 years.

Changelog

Date	Revision	Change
2025/02/21	01	Initial commit.