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by JumpCrisscross 592 days ago
No. Orbital mechanically, no.

> Debris in orbit collides with other objects in orbit, creating debris in orbit. That's a cascade

For the same reason not every nucleus that fractures on neutron bombardment sustains chain reactions not every orbital configuration supports a Kessler cascade. In LEO, it’s virtually impossible: you get a nuisance, not SOL.

Note that Kessler posited his syndrome before we could computationally verify it. We can now. It’s not a real threat in the long term, and is more of an insurance question than existential issue for spaceflight in the medium term. It’s pertinent in the very short term, militarily, which is partly how we know it’s very difficult to trigger across even limited orbits.