The Invisible Traffic Jam

Executive Overview

Earth’s orbit is no longer empty. Decades of launches have created a dense and growing population of satellites, debris, and inactive payloads. This project analyzes orbital objects to understand how we got here, where the risks concentrate, and what the future may look like.

Key Insights

• Orbital Growth: Satellite and debris population has increased exponentially over the last 20 years.
• Congestion Hotspots: Low Earth Orbit (LEO) regions around major launch sites show the highest debris density.
• Country Responsibility: A few countries account for the majority of objects in orbit, highlighting regulatory gaps.
• Future Risk: Without mitigation, collision probability rises, increasing the risk to operational satellites and space missions.

Tools & Approach

Platform: Tableau Public
Techniques: Data storytelling, calculated fields, geographic mapping, time-series analysis
Data Source: Space-Track.org, open-source satellite datasets