The United States is losing its leadership role in the fight against orbital debris

Monday, February 24, 2020

SWF Director of Program Planning Dr. Brian Weeden has published a new article in The Space Review on the recent update to the U.S. Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices. While the updated Standard Practices do have some improvements, Dr. Weeden assesses them as falling short of where U.S. policy should be on dealing with the threat of orbital debris. Dr. Weeden also discusses the failure of the United States to make progress on active debris removal capabilities and enforcing the existing debris mitigation guidelines and urges the United States to remedy the situation by implementing new authorities for civil space situational awareness, space traffic management, and space environmental management.