How we protected the UK and space in December 2024
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-16)

This report was issued in January 2025 and covers the time period 1 December 2024 to 31 December 2024 inclusive.

Summary

December saw a decrease in collision alerts compared to November. We monitored an increase in uncontrolled re-entries in December. The majority posed little risk of Earth impact.

All NSpOC warning and protection services functioned as expected throughout the period.

Uncontrolled Re-Entry Early Warning

December has seen an increase in the number of objects re-entering Earth’s atmosphere when compared to the previous month.

Of the 83 objects monitored for re-entry this month, 66 were satellites, 11 rocket bodies, 4 were pieces of debris and 2 were classified as unknown objects, likely to be a rocket body and a satellite.

Chart showing number of re-entries monitored by month. January: 13, February: 24, March: 25, April: 22, May: 56, June: 48, July: 44, August: 89, September: 50, October: 35, November: 47, December: 83

In-Space Collision Avoidance

Collision risks to UK-licenced satellites declined by 21.3% in December, which is slightly below the yearly average of 2,250.

Chart showing number of collision risks to UK-licensed satellites monitored by month. January: 1,690, February: 1,943, March: 1,903, April: 1,899, May: 2,560, June: 1,881, July: 1,795, August: 2,137, September: 3,041, October: 3,181, November: 2,722, December: 2,142

Number of Objects in Space

There was an increase to the in-orbit population during December, with 368 newly catalogued objects added to the US Satellite Catalogue.

Of these objects catalogued, 200 were newly launched Starlink satellites with a further 55 catalogued objects coming from a Russian multi-payload launch on 4 November 2024.

The Chinese Qianfan constellation increased by an additional 18 satellites and six UK licensed satellites also launched.

Chart showing number registered space objects by month. January: 28,014, February: 28,172, March: 28,478, April: 28,752, May: 28,850, June: 28,931, July: 28,917, August: 29,297, September: 29,678, October: 29,665, November: 29,826, December: 29,921

Fragmentation analysis

NSpOC monitored one fragmentation event in low Earth orbit (LEO), which occurred during December concerning a US-licenced satellite DMSP 5D-2 F14. The fragmentation took place at approximately 840 km and no fragments have been catalogued on Space-Track.org as of yet. NSpOC will continue to monitor this event.

No other fragmentations were detected or monitored during December.

Space weather

During the reporting period, space weather was moderately active. Key space weather events over this reporting period include:

9 – 15 December

Three strong, wide-area blackouts affecting much of the sunlit side of the Earth for at least two hours. Low frequency navigation systems are likely to have encountered brief outages, with possible minor disruptions in satellite navigation systems.

17 December

An unexpected Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) arrived in the early hours resulting in a Moderate geomagnetic storm with possible impacts to satellites. These potentially include increased drag on satellites in LEO, which may require further corrective manoeuvres.

23 – 31 December

Frequent Moderate solar flares and isolated Strong flares, with further wide-area blackouts to much of the sunlit side of the Earth lasting for a couple of hours.

Comments

The National Space Operations Centre combines and coordinates UK civil and military space domain awareness capabilities to enable operations, promote prosperity and protect UK interests in space and on Earth from space-related threats, risks and hazards