For ESA, a satellite collision-avoidance maneuver every 2 weeks. In 2020, half were to avoid other active satellites

Holger Krag interview, head of space safety office, European Space Agency.

PARIS — The European Space Agency's space safety office performs around 25 collision-avoidance maneuvers with its satellites every year and has no reason to believe this will improve. The 22-nation ESA's report on satellites in low Earth orbit found that in 2019, 80% of retiring satellites that needed to maneuver to be able to deorbit within 25 years did not do so.

So why is Holger Krag, head of the space safety office, cautiously optimistic about the satellite . . .

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