Waste in space: all the news surrounding space junk – The Verge

Europe’s space agency will destroy a brand-new satellite in 2027 just to see what happens

2024-09-27T14:35:18-04:00

An illustration of DRACO getting destroyed in Earth’s atmosphere. | Image: ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch a satellite into Earth's orbit in 2027 to watch it get wrecked as it reenters the atmosphere. The project is intended to help understand how exactly satellites break apart so that scientists can learn how to prevent the creation of more space debris.

Space junk is becoming a bigger problem as we send more satellites into orbit, but there are efforts to try and address it. This mission is part of the ESA's Zero Debris Charter initiative to stop the creation of additional space debris by 2030.

The mission is called the Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object (DRACO), and the insides of …

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Getting up close and personal with space junk

2024-07-12T06:24:45-04:00

These photographs of a discarded H-2A rocket upper stage were taken at a distance of just 50 meters. | Image: Astroscale

We're getting a close look at some of the space junk that's floating in space thanks to Tokyo-based company Astroscale Japan. New images taken from a distance of just 50 meters, show the discarded upper stage of a Japanese H-2A rocket that's currently trapped in Earth's orbit. They were taken by Astroscale's Active Debris Removal (ADRAS-J) satellite following the spacecraft's first fly-around observation of the debris.

ADRAS-J was launched on February 18th with the goal of collecting observational data that can be used to eventually remove large-scale space junk from orbit. The satellite has been monitoring the rocket's upper stage for seve …

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NASA confirms origin of space junk that crashed through Florida home

2024-04-16T06:22:03-04:00

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The four-inch-tall metal object tore through a roof in Naples, Florida, last month. | Image: Alejandro Otero

NASA has confirmed suspicions that the strange object that crashed into a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS). The agency analyzed the cylindrical object after it tore through the roof and two floors of a house in Naples on March 8th and established that it came from a cargo pallet of aging batteries that was released from the ISS back in 2021.

More specifically, NASA revealed in a blog post on Monday that the offending object was a support component used to mount the batteries on the 5,800-pound (2,630-kilogram) pallet released from the space station. Made from Inconel (a metal alloy that can …

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FCC issues first-ever fine for leaving junk in space

2023-10-03T13:02:06-04:00

Dish Network will pay the price for failing to move its EchoStar-7 satellite out of harm’s way | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The FCC has issued its first fine for space junk to Dish Network for not properly deorbiting its satellite. The company admitted it was liable for not shifting its EchoStar-7 to a safer spot and will pay a penalty of $150,000 and implement a compliance plan.

Space debris - non-functioning manmade materials floating around space - can pose a hazard to working infrastructure, including the ISS, which has had run-ins with debris in the past. According to the FCC, defunct satellites like Dish's can also interfere with "the nation's terrestrial and space-based communication systems by increasing the risk of damage to satellite communications sys …

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SpaceX’s Starlink and other satellite internet providers are making light pollution worse for astronomers

2023-03-21T15:48:32-04:00

People watch the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 second-generation Starlink satellites at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on February 27th, 2023. | Photo by Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images

The swift rise of internet satellites, forming megaconstellations, and accumulating space junk are already starting to mess with astronomers' research. The problem is growing exponentially, scientists warn in a series of papers published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy. And they want regulators to do something about it.

The swarm of satellites functioning in low Earth orbit has more than doubled since 2019, when space-based internet initiatives really started to take off. That year, SpaceX and OneWeb launched their first batches of satellites with the goal of providing global internet coverage. Orbiting the planet at a closer range …

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After mistaken identity and confusion, a piece of space junk slams into the Moon

2022-03-04T10:53:57-05:00

After years of zooming through deep space, a presumed leftover piece of a Chinese rocket slammed into the Moon today, just as space tracking experts expected it would. At least, it should have hit the Moon around 7:30AM ET this morning, as long as the law of gravity has not changed. The collision brings an end to the rocket's life in space and likely leaves a fresh new crater on the Moon that may be up to 65 feet wide.

The now-expired rocket has caused quite a buzz this past month. First of all, the vehicle was never intended to crash into the Moon, making it a rare piece of space debris to find its way to the lunar surface by accident. Add …

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A SpaceX rocket slamming into the Moon is a reminder to clean up our deep space junk

2022-01-27T13:09:33-05:00

Update February 13th, 12PM ET: The astronomer who originally predicted that this object would hit the Moon, Bill Gray, updated his prediction on February 12th, arguing that the vehicle is probably not a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after all. Instead, he now thinks the object is a leftover piece of a Chinese rocket. The Verge wrote a new story about this update, which you can read here. We've kept the original story below, as most of the information still stands, just with a different kind of rocket.

For the last seven years, a leftover piece of an old SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has been circling the Earth on a very wide orbit, having a pretty unrema …

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NASA delays spacewalk due to threat of space debris

2021-11-30T09:03:54-05:00

The International Space Station | Image: NASA

Early this morning, NASA postponed a spacewalk scheduled to occur outside the International Space Station today, after getting word of a possible safety threat from some nearby space debris. It's unclear where the debris is coming from, but the delay comes about two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in orbit, creating thousands of dangerous fragments that threatened the space station.

NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn were all set to don spacesuits and leave the confines of the ISS this morning at around 7:10AM ET, in order to replace an antenna on the outside of the station. It would have been the fifth s …

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Visualizations show the extensive cloud of debris Russia’s anti-satellite test created

2021-11-19T11:55:58-05:00

A screengrab of a visualization, created by Hugh Lewis

Satellite trackers have been working overtime to figure out just how much dangerous debris Russia created when it destroyed one of its own satellites early Monday - and the picture they've painted looks bleak. Multiple visual simulations of Russia's anti-satellite, or ASAT, test show a widespread cloud of debris that will likely menace other objects in orbit for years.

Early this week, Russia launched a missile that destroyed the country's Kosmos 1408 satellite, a large spacecraft that orbited the Earth roughly 300 miles up. The breakup of the satellite created at least 1,500 pieces of trackable fragments, according to the US State Departme …

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SpaceX rocket debris lands on man’s farm in Washington

2021-04-02T18:05:47-04:00

A pressure vessel from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was found in a man’s farm last weekend. | Grant County Sheriff’s Office

A pressure vessel from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage fell on a man's farm in Washington State last week, leaving a "4-inch dent in the soil," the local sheriff's office said Friday.

The black Composite-Overwrapped Pressure Vessel, or COPV, was a remnant from the alien invasion-looking breakup of a Falcon 9 second stage over Oregon and Washington on March 26, local officials said. The stage reentered the atmosphere in an unusual spot in the sky after sending a payload of SpaceX's Starlink satellites to orbit.

A Grant County, Washington property owner, who told authorities he didn't want to be identified, found the errant COPV - roughly the …

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