Then again, the International Space Station has also been in space for 24 years, so it looks like we have that problem, for now. Well done anyway.

They have to deviate regularly. And in those 24 years, more and more space debris has been added, so the stakes are slowly increasing. If a mistake occurs (a few) times between a satellite and a piece of space debris, a lot of space debris is added immediately, which increases the chance of another collision of another satellite, which leads to more debris and so on. It can get out of control very quickly, creating so much debris that most of the satellites fall out of the system, they all turn into space debris, and it becomes impossible to fly satellites in certain orbits without coming into contact with this debris. Collide. That’s what it’s called Kessler syndrome.

The problem with all those internet satellites from SpaceX, Amazon, etc. is that they are way too many satellites, so the chance of collision also increases a lot, as does the chance of a chain reaction. I believe that many (but not all!) of these satellites are in a relatively low orbit, so in the event of a catastrophe, they fall back down again within a relatively short period of time (less than 10 years), and then those orbits can reasonably be used again. . Not that this isn’t a bad thing: 10 years is still a long time. This is all in contrast to higher orbits: once they are truly polluted, it takes centuries or thousands of years for the debris to return to Earth and become usable again.