Donald J. Kessler

Donald J. Kessler (born 1940) is an American astrophysicist and former NASA scientist known for his studies regarding space debris.

Early career Kessler was a flight controller for Skylab, the US space station launched by NASA in 1973. While there, he developed what is now known as the Kessler syndrome, which posits that collisions between space debris become increasingly likely as the density of space debris increases in orbit around the Earth, and a cascade effect results as each collision in turn creates more debris that can cause further collisions. With Burton G. Cour-Palais, Kessler first published his ideas in 1978, in an academic paper titled "Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites: The Creation of a Debris Belt." The paper established Kessler's reputation, and NASA subsequently made him the head of the newly created Orbital Debris Program Office to study the issue and establish guidelines to slow the accumulation of space debris.

Awards and honors Kessler has received numerous awards for his pioneering work, the most recent being the 2010 Dirk Brower Award for his half-century career in astrodynamics. The central main-belt asteroid 11267 Donaldkessler, discovered by American astronomer Schelte Bus at the Californian Palomar Observatory in 1981, was named in his honor on 13 April 2017 .