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Written question asked by James McMurdock (Independent (affiliation)) on Monday, 19 October 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 October 2026. It was answered by Chris McDonald (Labour) on Monday, 26 October 2026 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Space Debris

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what estimate the Government has made of the proportion of tracked space debris attributable to objects launched by (a) the UK, (b) Russia or the former Soviet Union, (c) the United States, (d) China, and (e) other countries.

Answer

The National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) is responsible for monitoring risks to UK interests in space.

The UK is a leading member of the European Space Agency (ESA) Space Safety programme. The ESA Debris Office’s Space Environmental Report estimates that there are around 1.7 million pieces of debris larger than 1cm in orbit, and a further 230 million debris objects smaller than 1cm. This highlights the scale of the problem of attributing debris to launch nations.

Catalogued space objects (active, legacy and trackable debris) as of June 2026 are broadly distributed as follows:

  • United States (US), ~40% to 45%
  • Russia / Former Soviet Union (RF), ~23% to 25%
  • China (CH), ~25% to 28%
  • United Kingdom (UK), < 1%

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
36139
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Space debris
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk