Earth’s Orbiting Junkyard Threatens the Space Economy
Rocket and satellite litter is endangering private space commerce. Enter the cosmic debris tracking industry.
An artist's rendering of space debris.
Source: ESAThis article is for subscribers only.
You never see it in those lovely NASA pictures of Earth, but the space surrounding our pale blue dot is a cosmic junkyard. Debris abounds, moving at ludicrous speeds and presenting plenty of hassles for satellite operators who do business in orbit.
This pollution poses an existential risk for greater commercialization of space, from the grand ambitions of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Corp. and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin LLC to other players who see promising futures for an array of space activities, from tourism, to imaging, to pharmaceutical research.