Holger Krag

Flying debris in space is a problem. There are currently more than one million man-made objects in Earth orbit that are larger than one centimeter. Most of these are fragments of rockets and satellites. They pose a threat to our infrastructure in space: due to the enormous speed of the debris, a particle just a few millimetres in size is enough to cause enormous damage if it hits a satellite. Without countermeasures, the exponential growth of space debris will become an ever greater risk, because in the worst-case scenario, some important orbits could become unusable.

Dr. Holger Krag studied aerospace engineering at the University of Braunschweig and then spent four years researching the monitoring and modelling of space debris at the Institute of Space Systems. In 2006, he moved to the European Space Agency (ESA) and initially worked on risk models and an operational collision avoidance system for space debris. Since 2019, he has been the head of ESA's Space Situational Awareness Program and is dedicated to the further development of the new space safety program, which was adopted at the "Space19+" ministerial meeting in Seville.

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