Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Artwork depicts Cluster satellite reentry.
Image credit: ESA/David Ducross

In an era of increasing global launch rates, heightened by the buckshot approach to tossing mega-satellite constellations into Earth orbit, there’s also escalating anxiety about the ramifications from reentry of defunct space hardware.

What’s lacking in the United States is a single coordinated effort, one that is consistently funded and engages a variety of disciplines. There is also no agreement about who should fund reentry studies; government space interests and roles are spread out over multiple federal agencies.

Image credit: Chelsea Thompson/NOAA

For more details, go to my new SpaceNews story – “The Aerospace Corporation pushes research on hard-to-spot spacecraft reentries” – at:

https://spacenews.com/the-aerospace-corporation-pushes-research-on-hard-to-spot-spacecraft-reentries/