space junk

China uses drag sail to clear up space junk successfully.

Scientists at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) have devised an ingenious way to combat the growing problem of…

2 years ago

Remember That Rocket That was Going to Crash Into the Moon? Scientists Think They've Found the Crater

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – NASA’s eye-in-the-sky in orbit around the Moon – has found the crash site of…

2 years ago

What Would a Sustainable Space Environment Look Like?

A new study paints a dire picture about Earth's orbital debris environment and highlights the need for mitigation strategies

3 years ago

A Chunk of Space Junk Just Hit the Far Side of the Moon

Observers have been tracking a chunk of space junk, waiting for it to strike the Moon. It should've hit the…

3 years ago

The Object About to Hit the Moon isn’t a SpaceX Booster After All

Last month, astronomers reported that a discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, launched 7 years ago, was on…

3 years ago

Doomed Satellite was Equipped With a Drag Sail to Deorbit it After its Mission was Complete

A team at Purdue University developed a drag sail to attach to satellites to help them de-orbit to combat space…

3 years ago

We Need to Fix Space Junk Before It’s Too Late

As of 2020, there were over 19,000 pieces of individually tracked space junk in orbit above the Earth. Of those,…

3 years ago

Starlink and OneWeb Have Their First Avoidance Maneuver With Each Other’s Constellations

Two companies, OneWeb and SpaceX, are racing to put fleets of thousands of communication satellites into orbit. In March they…

4 years ago

Ground-Based Lasers Could Push Space Debris off Collision-Course Orbits

Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) are finding new uses for the laser-based technology that sharpens telescope imagery –…

4 years ago

How Long Will Space Junk Take to Burn Up? Here’s a Handy Chart

If the Roman Empire had been able to launch a satellite in a relatively high Low Earth Orbit – say…

4 years ago