Kessler syndrome

Illustration of the Kessler syndrome.

The Kessler syndrome is a theory that if you shot down enough satellites in different orbits, their debris would get out of control and destroy all other satellites and space assets in the same orbit. This effect would then spiral out of control and simply destroy everything of any nation that is based in space. The density of debris would be so high that there wouldn’t be any further space launches possible. The Kessler syndrome is named for Donald Kessler who worked for the US Army and NASA.

NATO heavily relies on its space assets to conduct a war. Everything is being conducted by space reconnaissance, GPS and communications. If a conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation were to break out, the Kessler syndrome would be triggered immediately.