Artists impression of the breakup of the European Space Agency's ATV-5 transport vehicle when it reentered Earth's atmosphere in 2015. (Credits: ESA-D. Ducros).

This article was updated on Dec. 14 at 11:06 pm with comments from one of the study’s authors William Ailor, technical fellow with the Aerospace Corp.’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies. 

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Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is a recipient...