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Space Junk: The French Factor

Much of the French debris can be traced to an accident in 1996, when a military satellite collided with a spent French rocket.

October 6, 2015

Much of the French debris can be traced to an accident in 1996, when a military satellite collided with a spent French rocket.

Takeaways

France is the 4th biggest contributor to “space junk” including spent rockets and retired satellites.

Over 500 cataloged objects in the orbit are attributable to France, which is 3% of the total number.

France was the third country, after Soviet Union and US, to launch its own satellite into space.