The Conjunction-Alert Era

Rather than a single breakup, this entry captures a structural shift: as active satellites tripled after 2020, the European Space Agency reported that close-approach (conjunction) alerts for its fleet rose roughly fivefold between 2019 and 2023, with operators now performing collision-avoidance manoeuvres routinely. The growth of mega-constellations has made space-traffic management a continuous operational burden and a central argument for active debris removal and stricter end-of-life disposal rules.