FAA Seeks To Limit Space Junk, Reduce Potential Spacecraft Collisions With New Regulation

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is taking action to reduce space junk. The agency, which awards launch licenses, drafted a proposal that limits the space rocket's upper stages' stay in orbit.

FAA Proposes New Rule To Reduce Space Junk

FAA released a statement Wednesday about its plan to reduce the clutter in the Earth's crowded orbit. The government agency wants "to limit the growth of new orbital debris and reduce the potential for collisions with spacecraft and satellites to promote a sustainable space environment."

With the potential legislation, commercial launch companies would have five different ways to dispose of their upper stages, the portion of the rocket that ejects the cargo. Per FAA's words, the choices are as follows:

Conduct a controlled reentry;
Move the upper stage to a less congested storage or graveyard orbit;
Send the upper stage on an Earth-escape orbit;
Retrieve the upper stage (called active debris removal) within five years or
Perform an uncontrolled atmospheric disposal.

According to the draft rule, space firms will have 25 years to let their upper stages fall uncontrollably from low Earth orbit. However, it leaves room for a quicker schedule.

The proposal suggests that it might be appropriate to have a shorter disposal timeline of 5 years or another period of less than 25 years, given that spent upper stages pose a significant risk of debris propagation the longer they are in orbit and provided that the overall mission lifetime of upper stages and their components is relatively brief. The risk of orbital debris damaging spacecraft and producing new debris, shortening the mission of another spacecraft, or endangering the lives of spaceflight crew would be reduced if the cleanup deadline was shortened.

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Other Space Junk Cleanup Program

TransAstra, a startup in space logistics, was awarded an $850,000 early-stage NASA contract for its "capture bags" that could inflate once it enters orbit to collect space junk. It is TransAstra's second contract for its inflatable capture bags in recent years. Additionally, they were given a NASA early-stage contract for 2021, which initially emphasized asteroid or space rock capture.

TransAstra realized that asteroids and space debris have similarities. Asteroids produce pebbles, while space debris can produce small fragments that behave like pebbles in space.

According to Joel Sercel, founder and CEO of TransAstra, the company advises guiding this bag around low Earth orbit using a space tug they call Worker Bee to gather various types of trash. They claimed this strategy is the best for orbital debris cleanup.

Japanese space company Astroscale is also working on its innovation to help clean up the low Earth orbit. It plans to use its End of Life Services by Astroscale-Multiple (ELSA-M) spacecraft to catch and deorbit retired satellites.

The company claimed in a video it released that there are already 2,200 defunct satellites and over 630 cases of debris-producing on-orbit collisions. Astroscale acknowledges the risk of the dangerously crowded orbit and feels it's high time to take action and address the problem.