Did you know What Country is Responsible For the Most Space Debris?

The Space Race created numerous innovations that eventually put the first ever humans on the Moon in 1969. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it has also led to the area comprising low Earth orbit getting swamped by all manner of debris. Current estimates state that there are approximately 14,000 bits of space debris that are crowding our upper atmosphere, and it bears mentioning that some countries share more of the blame than others.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there are three countries in particular that have contributed the most space debris of all. At the top of the list is Russia, which has contributed 4,521 bits of space debris, although much of this came during the era of the Soviet Union when the superpower was competing against the US.

The US itself is ranked second, with a total of 4,317 objects that can be counted as space debris hailing from the North American nation. Coming in third is China with 4,137, and there is a wide gap between these three countries and others.

For example, France is in fourth place but it is only responsible for about 370 pieces of space debris, and the count further plummets when you look at India. The South Asian nation is ranked fifth despite only being accountable for 62 of the pieces of space debris that are floating close to the surface of the Earth, which indicates that China, the US and Russia hold the lion’s share of the blame.

Indeed, the entire European Space Agency put 22 pieces of space debris into space, but this is just 2 short of the total of all countries outside of a select few. Japan is responsible for 48 bits of debris, China and Brazil collectively launched 25, while Canada is responsible for 5, and Germany and Argentina have one apiece. All other countries beyond these few have put out just 24 bits of space debris in total, so the major players have a responsibility to fix this problem.

 H/T: VisualCapitalist