Space Junk, the Kessler Syndrome, and SpaceX's Monopoly: Space to Grow

Space Junk, the Kessler Syndrome, and SpaceX's Monopoly: Space to Grow

From Thinking On Paper by Mark Fielding and Jeremy Gilbertson

March 23, 2026 · 36 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of space junk and the Kessler Syndrome in relation to SpaceX's satellite launches.

There’s nothing Elon Musk loves more than sending Starlink satellites to space. Except maybe money and bad tweets. He’s just filed to send a million up there. Yep! A million. Which doesn’t sit well with Donald Kessler, the man who first theorized the Kessler Syndrome in 1978. You see, Kessler and others think roughly 70,000 objects in LEO is the threshold beyond which collision cascades become self-sustaining and unstoppable, regardless of whether new launches cease entirely. That’s a lot less than one million. What does science say? And is anyone clearing up all the junk we’ve already sent up to space? We're reading Space To Grow by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, to find out. This is Part 4. Please enjoy the show -- 🎧 Listen to every podcast⁠ 📺 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ 🏠 Follow us on ⁠X⁠ 🏠 Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ To suggest guests or sponsor the show, please email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz -- Timestamps (00:00) How 150,000 pieces of space junk ended up in orbit and why nobody cleaned them up (06:21) Kessler syndrome explained: the tipping point where collisions become unstoppable (10:57) Why the insurance market is not pricing orbital collision risk (13:50)…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mark Fielding, Jeremy Gilbertson

Topics covered

  • space junk
  • Kessler Syndrome
  • SpaceX
  • satellite launches
  • debris removal
  • orbital collision risk

Keywords

  • space debris
  • collision cascades
  • LEO
  • active debris removal
  • satellite
  • orbital risk
  • space policy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SpaceX, Astroscale

Books & works: Space To Grow

More episodes of Thinking On Paper

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Thinking On Paper podcast page.