Space Force considers clean-up of space debris, as industry focuses on satellite services like maintenance
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – There is a need for industry capabilities to clean-up burgeoning amounts of space junk, and at the same time an urgency to getting a civil authority for managing orbital traffic up and running, says Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt, vice commander of U.S. Space Force Space Operations Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. Breaking Defense reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
28 Sept. 2021 -- “We need to pick up debris; we need trash trucks. We need things to go make debris go away,” Burt says. “That’s definitely a need, and I think there is a use case for industry to get after that as a service-based opportunity.”
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) tracks more than 27,000 objects in space, most of which is space debris — such as defunct rocket bodies and obsolete satellites.
The Space Force has yet to move from interest to actually implementing programs to buy space services of any type, much less for debris removal. So companies like Northrop Grumman’s SpaceLogistics and Astroscale have been focusing their internal investments on what are called satellite servicing missions, such as re-fueling or orbit correction or repairs as a new potential source of commercial income.
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
