Maintaining the benefits afforded by space is central to a wide range of U.S. national interests. These include significant government (military, intelligence, and civil ) and commercial interests. Decades of human space flight—primarily U.S. and Russian space activities—have littered the Earth's orbit with debris. NASA defines orbital debris as "all man-made objects in orbit about the Earth which no longer serve a useful purpose." Since 2007, two significant debris-generating events have greatly increased the amount of debris in orbit. One expert reported it likely that debris from the Chinese ASAT test damaged a small Russian satellite six years later in 2013. On February 10, 2009, an operational U.S. Iridium communications satellite collided at a near right angle with a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite. The study concluded that the amount of debris currently in orbit will continually collide with itself, leading to the growth rate of debris and increases in spacecraft failures. The population growth will be primarily driven by catastrophic collisions that are likely to occur every five to nine years. The United States also pursues efforts to prevent future collisions in space. DOD provides notifications to other governments and commercial satellite operators of potentially hazardous conjunctions between orbiting objects. In addition, some believe that perhaps one of the most beneficial TCBMs for ensuring sustainability and security in space could be the adoption of best practice guidelines or a code of conduct to promote responsible behavior in space. Although international compliance with common mitigation measures is widely accepted as necessary, as mentioned earlier there is a growing view within international space agencies and the scientific community that mitigation alone is no longer sufficient to prevent the continual increase of space debris. The actual cleanup and removal of orbital debris would raise some major legal issues. A few hearings in recent years have touched on orbital debris issues, but Congress might consider additional hearings from major stakeholders in the military, intelligence, civil, and commercial sector on whether proposed mitigation measures are in the national interests of the United States. International compliance with mitigation measures is widely seen as critically important, but many experts believe that mitigation efforts alone are insufficient. For this reason, more aggressive measures, such as active debris removal, could be considered to protect U.S. national security interests in space and the long-term sustainability of the space environment.
After decades of activities in space, Earth's orbit is littered with man-made objects that no longer serve a useful purpose. This includes roughly 22,000 objects larger than the size of a softball and hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments. This population of space debris potentially threatens U.S. national security interests in space, both governmental (military, intelligence, and civil) and commercial. Congress has broadly supported the full range of these national security interests and has a vested concern in ensuring a strong and continued U.S. presence in space.
Two events in recent years dramatically increased the amount of fragmentation debris in orbit. One was the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test and, in 2009, an active U.S. commercial satellite accidentally collided with a defunct Russian satellite. Although the 2013 movie Gravity exaggerated the issue and took certain artistic liberties, the film graphically depicted and drew the public's attention to the potential destruction of operational satellites and other platforms in space from collisions with orbital debris. Some experts maintain the population growth of debris in space will be primarily driven by catastrophic collisions that are likely to occur every five to nine years.
For decades, the United States has worked to minimize the amount of orbital debris left from its space launches and inactive satellites. Many space-faring nations have adopted similar mitigation measures, and additional voluntary international codes of conduct are being pursued.
Many experts now believe that mitigation efforts alone are insufficient to prevent the continual increase of space debris. A growing view among experts holds that some level of active removal of debris from the space environment is necessary. Nevertheless, such efforts are technologically immature and face significant budgetary and legal obstacles.
Congress has an opportunity to explore these issues through hearings, for instance with major stakeholders in the U.S. national security and civil space communities, and the commercial sector. Efforts to find international agreement on mitigation may involve congressional prerogatives on advice and consent, and any program to pursue remediation will likely entail appropriations support from Congress.