Space debris – a journey to Earth takes the audience on a voyage from the outer solar system back to our home planet. The objects encountered along the way are of human origin. Originally designed to explore the universe, these are now a challenge for modern space flight. An estimated number of 700,000 objects larger than 1 cm and 170 million objects larger than 1mm are expected to reside in Earth orbits.

The video gives a closer look at the different regions used for space flight and explains how mitigation and removal measures could preserve future usage of these orbits.

Produced for the 7th European Conference on Space Debris, 18-21 April 2017.

Access broadcast-quality clips from this video via ESA TV.