Space junk – level 3

Space junk

09-05-2025 15:00

Experts warn that space debris is becoming a serious risk as more objects orbit Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) says 1,200 pieces of rocket and satellite debris fell to Earth last year, and about 54,000 large objects are still in orbit.

The ESA also warns of the Kessler Syndrome, where collisions between debris create even more dangerous fragments. This is why it is important to remove large, non-working objects from orbit. France is currently the European country with the highest space debris risk, with over 500 pieces of junk and more than 100 satellites in orbit. Although France follows UN rules to reduce debris, experts say a large debris cascade could stop us from accessing space in the future.

The UK and ESA have fewer debris pieces, with the UK’s being very low despite a large satellite fleet. ESA is working on better debris removal, but the legal ownership of debris and the lack of funding remain big problems. Global cooperation will be needed to solve this issue.

Difficult words: cascade (a process when one event causes many others), fleet (a group of vehicles, ships or machines that belong to one person, organization or country, and are used together), ownership (the state of having something as yours).

You can watch the video news lower on this page.

What two major obstacles hinder ESA’s efforts to remove space debris?

LEARN 3000 WORDS with NEWS IN LEVELS

News in Levels is designed to teach you 3000 words in English. Please follow the instructions
below.

How to improve your English with News in Levels: 

Test

  1. Do the test at Test Languages.
  2. Go to your level. Go to Level 1 if you know 1-1000 words. Go to Level 2 if you know 1000-2000 words. Go to Level 3 if you know 2000-3000 words.

Reading

  1. Read two news articles every day.
  2. Read the news articles from the day before and check if you remember all new words.

Listening

  1. Listen to the news from today and read the text at the same time.
  2. Listen to the news from today without reading the text.

Writing

  1. Answer the question under today’s news and write the answer in the comments.

Speaking

  1. Choose one person from the Skype section.
  2. Talk with this person. You can answer questions from Speak in Levels.

 

Stock images by Depositphotos