News Excerpt: 

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman has made the declaration to achieve debris-free space missions by 2030, at the 42nd Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) annual meeting.

 Key points:

• This initiative aims to achieve debris-free space missions by all Indian space actors, governmental and non-governmental, by 2030.
• India encourages all state space actors to follow this initiative for the long-term sustainability of outer space.
• ISRO has a laid-out plan for space exploration and space utilization, with 54 spacecraft currently in orbit, along with non-functional objects.
• ISRO has been taking careful action to dispose of or remove space objects once their active role is over, by de-orbiting them to a safe location.
• For all future spacecraft launches such as the 'Bharatiya Antariksha Station', ISRO plans to take action to ensure that they are deorbited and brought to a safe location after their mission is complete.

What is Space Debris?

• Space Junk, or Space Debris, is any piece of machinery or debris left by humans in space.
• It can refer to big objects such as dead satellites that have failed or been left in orbit at the end of their mission. It can also refer to smaller things, like bits of debris or paint flecks that have fallen off a rocket.
• Some human-made junk has been left on the Moon, too.

What risks does Space Debris pose to space exploration?

• At this moment, space junk doesn't pose a huge risk to exploration efforts. 
• The biggest danger it poses is to other satellites in orbit.
• These satellites have to move out of the way of all this incoming space junk to make sure they don't get hit and potentially damaged or destroyed.
• In total, across all satellites, hundreds of collision avoidance manoeuvres are performed every year, 
• It includes the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts live.
• The ISS has to carry out collision avoidance maneuvers to avoid getting damaged by space junk. 
• Fortunately, collisions are rare: A Chinese satellite broke up in March 2021 after a collision. Before that, the last satellite to collide and be destroyed by space junk was in 2009. And when it comes to exploring beyond Earth's orbit, none of the limited amount of space junk out there poses a problem.