Space Debris

By NASA July 30, 2022 A Long March-5B Y3 rocket blasting off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan. Credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator released this statement Saturday, July 30 regarding debris from the Chinese…

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Spaceflight, despite its origins in cold war saber-rattling, is often portrayed as a purely beneficial endeavor that somehow helps all of humanity: Satellites provide invaluable planet-scale situational awareness and connectivity. Space telescopes and interplanetary probes deliver transformative discoveries about our place in the universe. Astronautical missions help satisfy our species’…

Home News Spaceflight China's Long March 5B rocket launches the new Wentian module of the Tiangong space station to Earth orbit on Sunday, July 24. (Image credit: CGTN) The newest piece of big Chinese space junk will fall back to Earth around the end of the month, experts predict. The…

SPACE SMASH Charlotte Edwards, Senior Technology and Science Reporter22:22, 20 Jul 2022Updated: 22:31, 20 Jul 2022NASA'S $10billion James Webb Space Telescope has suffered damage after a meteoroid struck its mirrors. The US space agency was aware of the impact in May but has just released a paper and images. 2…

Home News Spaceflight Artist's illustration of space junk orbiting Earth. (Image credit: NASA) It's only a matter of time before someone is killed by falling space junk. The toll taken by space debris so far includes an Indonesian livestock pen's fence crushed by a stray fuel tank, a house in…

The accumulation of junk which is damaging to the environment isn’t only a problem here on Earth: it’s also a problem in space. Every year more and more discarded rocket stages, broken satellites, and other bits of debris are put into orbit around our planet, and not all of them…

From magnets to harpoons, various methods have been proposed and tested over the years to eliminate the growing problem of space junk. One researcher is leading efforts in a more sci-fi direction: lasers. Space junk is a well-documented and growing problem. Now more than ever, modern life is underpinned by…

Home News Tech China unfolded a deorbit sail in space following a Long March 2D rocket launch in June 2022. (Image credit: SAST) China has unfolded a large sail attached to a rocket component following a recent launch, as part of tests designed to help reduce the amount of space…

Space junk is a massive problem for NASA and other space agencies. Back in March, we reported on three tons of space junk hurtling towards the Moon. The junk was set to hit the side of the Moon facing away from our planet. Since those initial reports, more believe the…