Why Does The ISS Need To Fire A Rocket Regularly To Stay In Orbit While Space Junk Just Floats?

Since mankind found the way up and into space, we have made countless efforts to go as far as we can to study the extraterrestrial world. Also, we have launched a bunch of satellites for different purposes like communication.

That has resulted in a lot of space junk floating in space, increasingly crowding orbits. But have you ever wondered why space junk keeps hanging there while the International Space Station needs to fire a rocket on a regular basis to keep itself in orbit? The answer is not really complicated, I managed to find a detailed, easy-to-understand explanation on Reddit for you.

According to user VeryLitte, while the ISS orbits Earth at 400 kilometers high, it’s still inside the atmosphere and affected by a drag force, though tiny. Eventually, the drag makes the ISS drop its orbit by approximately 2 kilometers per month. If there’s nothing to keep it in orbit, the space station will keep sinking deeper into the atmosphere and accelerate.  And vice versa, objects in higher orbits will experience a smaller drag and take longer to decay.

As a result, for example, something orbiting at 1,000 kilometers will take about 1,000 years to decay, the ISS orbiting at 400 kilometers will take fewer years to decay, and an object orbiting at 200 kilometers will take just days to decay.

Space junk comes from several causes, including rocket boosters, debris from collisions, or dead satellites. Those at the lowest orbits are called ‘self-cleaning.’ And space junk at higher orbits will hang in space for a much longer time and won’t decay anytime soon.

So, that’s the answer to why space junk can hang in there for so long while the ISS needs a regular boost to stay in orbit.

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