At the Ministerial Conference of 2022, ESA was encouraged by its Member States to implement “a Zero Debris approach for its missions; and to encourage partners and other actors to pursue similar paths, thereby collectively putting Europe at the forefront of sustainability on Earth and in space, while preserving the competitiveness of its industry”.
The Zero Debris approach is ESA's profound and ambitious revision of its internal space debris mitigation requirements that builds on a decade of work by its Clean Space Office and will drive the development of technologies required for no more debris to be left in orbit by 2030.
The Zero Debris Charter, in addition, is a community-driven and community-building document and initiative for the global space community. Facilitated by ESA’s ‘Protection of Space Assets’ Accelerator – find out more about all the Accelerators – and created and written by 40 space actors, the Charter contains both high-level guiding principles and specific, jointly defined targets to get to Zero Debris by 2030.
The initiative was announced at the Paris Air Show in June 2023 by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher along with senior executives from Airbus Defence and Space, OHB and Thales Alenia Space, who recognised ESA’s Zero Debris approach as a meaningful contribution towards space safety and sustainability and announced their company’s participation in the co-development of the Zero Debris Charter.
The 2023 Space Summit in Seville will mark the opening of the period of registration of intent to sign the Zero Debris Charter. Signing ceremonies will take place in the first half of 2024.