Cantwell, Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Clear Space Junk, Protect Space Exploration

WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) in reintroducing the bipartisan Orbital Sustainability (ORBITS) Act to establish a first-of-its-kind demonstration program that would reduce the nearly 1 million pieces of space junk in orbit.
“The Orbital Sustainability or ORBITS Act will jumpstart the technology development we need to address the very serious problem of orbital debris that threatens our scientific satellites, human space exploration and commercial space services,”said Sen. Cantwell.“The longer we delay in taking meaningful action, the less safe our activities in orbit become.”
“Dangerous debris in Earth’s orbit threatens American satellites and jeopardizes future space exploration missions,”said Sen. Hickenlooper.“It’s time we clean up the clutter and protect our critical space operations.”
“Space is getting more and more crowded with debris that poses a real threat to our satellites,"said Sen. Lummis."People in Wyoming and across the country depend on satellites for our national security, weather forecasting, wildfire monitoring, GPS navigation, and communications essential for our way of life. The ORBITS Act addresses this growing challenge and helps maintain safe human spaceflight operations above the earth. This bipartisan solution will protect America's interests in space for generations to come.”
"The ORBITS Act would address a key aspect of the complex space debris problem. We should be empowering NASA to partner with the U.S. space industry in active debris removal technology to tackle space junk threats. The United States is the world's premier spacefaring nation, and I look forward to continuing our leadership,”said Sen. Wicker.
TheORBITS Actpassedthe Senate in the 118th Congress.
Space junk, or orbital debris, currently threatens human space exploration, scientific research missions, and emerging commercial space services. There are approximately 8,000 metric tons of debris currently in orbit, including at least 900,000 individual pieces of debris that are potentially lethal to satellites. Because of the threats from debris already in orbit, simply preventing more debris in the future is not enough. TheORBITS Actwill jumpstart a program focused on research, development, and the demonstration of technologies capable of safely carrying out successful Active Debris Remediation (ADR) missions to create a robust commercial market for these services.
In recent years, NASAcanceleda planned spacewalk and maneuvered the International Space Station (ISS) to avoid colliding with orbital debris. Due to growing amounts of debris, the ISS has performed numerous Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuvers (PDAM) in the past year alone.
Specifically, the bill contains the following provisions:
Key supporters of the bill include theAerospace Industry Association,Secure World Foundation, andCONFERS.
Full text of theORBITS Actis availableHERE.