Space Debris

by Jeff Foust — October 13, 2020 While the overall population of orbital debris continues to grow, a list of most dangerous debris is dominated by upper stages left behind in orbit. Credit: ESA WASHINGTON — While launch providers are doing a better job at disposing of upper stages left…

It’s Elon Musk. He’s the space guy. Photo: Getty Images Add another space show to the big pile of space shows. According to the Hollywood Reporter, HBO is developing a six-episode limited series called SpaceX, which will adapt the book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic…

Earth is about to get a temporary mini-moon — and this one might be space junk. Researchers are tracking an object that looks like it will be captured by Earth’s gravity for just a few months this winter before safely heading back out into the Solar System. It might be…

by Debra Werner — October 6, 2020 A Europeanized Soyuz lifts off from French Guiana on Feb. 27, 2019, carrying the first six OneWeb satellites to orbit. Credit: Arianespace SAN FRANCISCO – Tracking and avoiding the growing debris field in low Earth orbit was clearly on the minds of speakers…

IBM has published two open-source artificial intelligence projects it hopes will help astronomers better deal with space junk – and encourage startups to circle Earth with swarms of CubeSats. The Space Situational Awareness (SSA) project looks at anthropogenic space objects (ASOs), the fancy term for stuff humans have lobbed into…

SpaceX discovered unexpected erosion on its Crew Dragon spaceship's heat shield after its first astronaut mission. A SpaceX executive said the crew members — the NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — were never in danger. But as a precaution, SpaceX updated the heat shield ahead of its next…

A look at how we can apply lessons learned during COVID-19 to space sustainability The pandemic of 2020 has brought great loss and suffering, assuredly impacting every human life on the planet in one way or another. While a number of countries appeared to have the virus under control, we…

The International Space Station had to perform an avoidance maneuver on Tuesday of this week to ensure the space station would clear a piece of space debris. NASA reported that the debris should pass within several miles of the station, but out of caution, the ISS trajectory was changed to…

by Sandra Erwin — September 24, 2020 A cloud of orbital debris. Credit: AGI The 18th Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base is now providing “more meaningful” data on approximately 25,000 space objects. WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command starting Sept. 24 is providing more precise data about the location…

Home News Spaceflight Every once in a while, orbital trajectories and fate's gravity conspire to let Earth briefly adopt a miniature moon to join us for a few measures of our planet's constant dance around the sun.Scientists rarely get to watch the process in action, but now they think they've…