Observing the Geostationary Ring

Based on orbital data contained in the DISCOS database, the situation in the geostationary ring is analysed. In January 2007, from 1121 known objects populating the geostationary region, 354 are controlled within their allocated longitude slots, 448 are drifting above, below or through GEO, and 147 are in a libration orbit. For 165 objects there is no orbital information available. In the last ten years from 1997 to 2006,152 spacecraft reached their end of life; 56 were reorbited in compliance with the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) recommendation, 54 were reorbited below the minimum recommended altitude, and 42 were abandoned or lost without any end-of-life disposal manoeuvre. Apart from these catalogued objects, the ESA 1-m telescope has observed many smaller debris (down to about 15 cm) in this orbital region representing a non-negligable collision risk for geostationary spacecraft.