A-Sat Debris May Affect Insurance Market

摘要

Thousands of pieces of space debris left in low Earth orbit after a Chinese missile destroyed an aging weather satellite last year have added risk that could affect space insurance coverage, said Christopher Kunstadter, vice president of underwriter XL Insurance. The debris is expected to remain in orbit for decades, with less than 20 percent re-entering the atmosphere over the next 100 years, Kunstadter said April 15 in a luncheon address to the Washington Space Business Roundtable. By contrast, the remaining debris from the U.S. Navy's Feb. 20 shootdown of a wayward spy satellite using an SM-3 missile is expected to have all re-entered by June, he said.