The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation that would authorize a NASA-run demonstration program to remove dangerous orbital debris from space.
The Orbital Sustainability or ORBITS Act was proposed in September by Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., along with Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo, Hickenlooper’s office said Thursday.
“From satellite communications to rockets carrying humans into deep space, space debris is a massive threat to space operations,” said Hickenlooper, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Space and Science. “I’m over the moon that our ORBITS Act passed and we can start cleaning up this space junk.”
In 2022 alone, NASA has been ordering the International Space Station to conduct a number of pre-determined debris avoidance maneuvers because of the increasing amount of debris. The most recent PDAM was done on Wednesday.
Under the ORBITS Act, NASA will launch a research and development program in search of technologies that can safely execute active debris remediation missions.
