Articles about Space junk

Illustration: Starburst and Supernova spacecraft in orbit, both equipped with Triton hardware

Got space junk? Portal and Paladin team up to create an orbital trash disposal service

Partnership will pair Portal’s maneuverable spacecraft with Paladin’s space debris collector for missions starting as early as 2027. Read More

Illustration: Otter spacecraft near another satellite in Earth orbit

Starfish Space wins $52.5M contract to provide satellite disposal service for Space Development Agency

Seattle-area startup plans to use its Otter spacecraft to deorbit military satellites safely at the end of their operational lives. Read More

Illustration: Otter spacecraft and another satellite in orbit

Starfish Space brings in new funding as it gears up for orbital inspection and docking

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space is bringing in more funding after announcing several agreements to use its Otter spacecraft for missions… Read More

Starfish Space wins $15M NASA award for a SSPICY mission to visit dead satellites

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space has won a three-year, $15 million contract from NASA for a mission aimed at doing up-close… Read More

Illustration: Starfish's Otter spacecraft in orbit

Starfish Space wins NASA contract to plan demonstration of orbital debris inspection

Even as Starfish Space works to get its first orbital demonstration mission back on track, the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup has… Read More

Founded by Blue Origin veterans, Starfish Space raises $7M for satellite servicing tug

Kent, Wash.-based Starfish Space says it’s raised $7 million to boost its drive to develop a space tug capable of… Read More

Expert skywatchers quickly solve Pacific Northwest’s meteor mystery

Was it a meteor? A broken-up satellite? Maybe a UFO? Leave it to an astronomer to identify what caused the… Read More

Spaceflight and Tethers Unlimited team up on deorbiting system for satellite carrier

Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc. says it’ll use a notebook-sized deorbiting system developed by another Seattle-area company to deal with the disposal… Read More

Tethers Unlimited says ‘Terminator Tape’ is speeding up a satellite’s descent as intended

Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited says “Terminator Tape,” an experimental tether-based system designed to drag satellites down from orbit, is working… Read More

SpaceX reports a ‘bug’ in its alert system after ESA shifts spacecraft to avoid Starlink satellite collision

The European Space Agency says it performed a collision avoidance maneuver over the Labor Day weekend to head off a… Read More

Tethers Unlimited joins forces with TriSept to test system for reducing orbital debris

Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited will have its technology for deorbiting space debris put to its most ambitious test next year,… Read More

Satellite consultant outlines a way-out plan to turn space junk into lunar treasure

What can be done with the thousands of dead satellites orbiting Earth? Some commercial ventures are hatching plans to get… Read More

Air Force sets up $100,000 VQ-Prize contest for space awareness visualization

The U.S. Air Force is looking for a few good apps to visualize satellites and other objects in Earth orbit —… Read More

White House readies new system for space traffic management, VP Mike Pence says

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Trump administration is getting set to sign off on a new set of procedures for… Read More

China and U.S. say Tiangong-1 space lab plunged to a fiery doom over the Pacific

China’s Tiangong-1 space lab is no more. The 8.5-ton spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere at about 5:15 p.m. PT today (00:15… Read More

No fooling: Skywatchers zero in on fiery fall of China’s Tiangong-1 space lab

After months of tracking China’s uncontrollable Tiangong-1 space lab, satellite watchers have narrowed down the time frame for its final,… Read More

We’re bad at cleaning up the trash in space, so a gecko gripper robot is here to help

Sandra Bullock’s character nearly got killed by space debris in the movie “Gravity” — but had she been equipped with… Read More

Chinese space junk sparks meteor reports

A bright streak in the sky generated hundreds of meteor sighting reports from Southern California to British Columbia, but it… Read More

High-flying scientists capture mystery object WT1190F’s fiery breakup on video

Scientists flying on an instrument-laden jet captured great video views of a mysterious space object known as WT1190F as it… Read More

Mystery object WT1190F comes down over Indian Ocean but fails to make a splash

Was it a spent Apollo rocket stage from the ’60s? A scary space rock? Whatever it was, the mysterious object known… Read More