How America Can Become a Leader in Cleaning Up Space

Thursday, February 17, 2022

SWF Director of Program Planning Dr. Brian Weeden has written a new op-ed in SpaceNews on how the United States can (and should) become a leader in cleaning up space. Dr. Weeden discusses how space debris remediation is an important part of dealing with the threat posed by orbital debris and why the United States needs to begin a national-scale effort to develop the capabilities to remove orbital debris. He calls on the U.S. to structure such a program after NASA's successful Commercial Cargo and Crew efforts, which included public-private sharing of the R&D costs, competitions to select multiple winners that met government capability thresholds while also being commercially viable, and the promise of government service contracts at the end. Dr. Weeden also stresses that for the program to be successful, it will also need to include funding for research on risk, cost-benefit analyses, and the economics of orbital debris to support future policy decisions.

The full article can be read at SpaceNews.