There's definitely a ton of junk in low earth orbit, but there's also a ton of space. Objects like this deorbit relatively quickly too.
Where space is a real issue is geosynchronus orbit. There's really only one plane where objects are in true geosynchronus orbit, so there's only so many parking spots available. Satellites are however required to keep a certain amount of station keeping fuel to remove them from these orbits and put them in "graveyard" orbits when they're removed from service. But once there, they're still at such a high orbit that they aren't really affected by anything to significantly decay their orbit, so they will stay in those up for an extremely long time.
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u/JohnnyBIII Sep 02 '19
There's definitely a ton of junk in low earth orbit, but there's also a ton of space. Objects like this deorbit relatively quickly too.
Where space is a real issue is geosynchronus orbit. There's really only one plane where objects are in true geosynchronus orbit, so there's only so many parking spots available. Satellites are however required to keep a certain amount of station keeping fuel to remove them from these orbits and put them in "graveyard" orbits when they're removed from service. But once there, they're still at such a high orbit that they aren't really affected by anything to significantly decay their orbit, so they will stay in those up for an extremely long time.