Taking out the trash – in space

Houston, we have a trash problem! “I know it is a truism, but space is a big place,” Matthew Stuttard, head of Advanced Systems – Space Systems Engineering at Airbus UK, told Al Jazeera. The last really big collision was 2009.” The collision Stuttard to which is referring was between a derelict Russian state-owned Cosmos 2251 satellite that had been left in orbit for a decade, and a commercial Iridium 33 satellite, which was a member of a highly profitable constellation of 66 satellites providing mobile phone services. So we are responding to the market.” With the uptick in satellite launches, and the mega-constellations in the pipeline, the United States Federal Communications Commission is currently seeking comment on how to best indemnify the US against the risk posed by any space junk that US commercial operators may leave in orbit. by Chris Blackerby, COO, Astroscale Europe is on the case, too “In every business, there may be a polluter, so clearly there will always be people who will take advantage of the situation,” Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the Surrey Space Centre, told Al Jazeera.