Space Debris

Home News Spaceflight New space rules will need to come fast to support commercial space stations and moon settlements, and guard against swiftly-growing space debris. That was a key takeaway message NASA and other government departments delivered to the National Space Council's (NSpC) users' advisory group (opens in new tab),…

BEIJING, Feb.19 -- According to the consensus reached by China, Russia and South Africa, from February 20 to 27, the navies of the three countries will hold the second joint maritime exercise in the eastern waters and airspace from Durban to Richards Bay of South Africa, said the Chinese defense…

Home References Spaceflight Old satellites and used rocket stages remain in orbit around Earth in some cases for thousands of years. (Image credit: European Space Agency) The space around our planet is getting cluttered. Thousands of satellites and millions of out-of-control fragments of space debris hurtle high above our heads,…

Amazon's plan to launch a series of satellites to offer broadband internet service can move ahead now that the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has endorsed the web giant's plan to keep space tidy. Barring unforeseen obstacles, Amazon expects to launch its first Project Kuiper satellites "in early 2023." Project…

A see-off ceremony for three taikonauts of the Shenzhou-15 manned space mission is held at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Nov. 29, 2022.(Xinhua/Liu Lei)   BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhou-15 taikonauts, who are currently on board the Chinese Tiangong space station, will conduct their first…

Home News Spaceflight Some chunks of space junk recovered in Australia were later identified as leftovers from SpaceX's Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station, which launched in November 2020 and returned to Earth in May 2021. (Image credit: Brad Tucker, Author provided) People are finding more and more pieces…

ADEO being deployed from the ION Satellite Carrier during the December 2022 test.Gif: High Performance Space Structure Systems/Gizmodo There’s a lot of junk orbiting our planet, from tiny flecks of paint to defunct rocket stages. While solutions to remove pre-existing debris have been developed, a private space company in Germany…

Home News Spaceflight An illustration of Earth orbit overcrowded with space junk and orbital debris. (Image credit: EvgeniyShkolenko/Getty Images) Low Earth orbit was the site of a near-miss today (Jan. 27) that had the potential to create thousands of pieces of hazardous space debris.  Satellite monitoring and collision detection firm…

Photo: PLA Southern Theater Command On Sunday, the day of the Chinese New Year, two fighter planes of a naval aviation brigade under the PLA Southern Theater Command took off from Yongxing Island in the Xisha Islands to track and monitor foreign aircraft over the South China Sea, the PLA…

Swinburne University’s Chief Scientist Virginia Kilborn says the “volume” of satellites planned to launch in the near future could “cause problems” regarding space junk. “The volume of satellites that is planned to be launched could cause problems for things like space junk or even just trying to then work out…